276 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



have turned up tlie north-west branch without cross- 

 ino- it striking direct for Cariboo. But we could not 

 find any trail in that direction, and The Assiniboine 

 having failed to discover any traces of one on the 

 eastern bank of the main river, to w^hich he crossed 

 on a tiny raft, we concluded that they must have gone 

 to its western shore, and began to prepare to cross 

 thither ourselves. 



On a tree we found an inscription to the effect that 

 Andre Cardinal, the guide, left the emigrants here to 

 return to Edmonton. This, then, was the place from 

 which, as he informed us, he had shown the emigrants 

 the hills of Cariboo in the distance. This cu-cumstance, 

 and the statement of the old woman at The Cache, that 

 the journey either to Cariboo or Kamloops would take 

 us about eight days, put us quite at our ease, although 

 we had now but a very small quantity of provisions 

 left. We felt the want of tea very much, far more 

 than the loss of salt or vegetables, or indeed any 

 other luxury. Abstinence from all alcoholic stimu- 

 lant we had endured for above a year without the 

 slightest discomfort, but the craving for tea and 

 tobacco never left us. "We had eked out our little 

 stock of the latter hitherto by mixing it with what the 

 Indians call " kinnikinnick," the inner bark of the 

 dog w^ood. We had only enough for three or four 

 pipes left amongst us now, and we reserved them 

 for special need. 



We fully expected to reach our destination in the 

 course of a few days, and set to work to prepare our 

 raft with great confidence. This occupied the whole 



