360 AECTIC VOYAGES. Chap. X. 



also to the danger of perishing in some of the lakes 

 which they had to cross on foot. On a narrow 

 branch of the Slave Lake he fell through the ice, 

 but escaped without injury; on another occasion 

 the ice bent so that it required the utmost speed to 

 avoid falling through where it gave way, as it seems 

 to have done at every step he took. In short it 

 was little less than miraculous, considering the 

 season and the severity of the winter, that he ever 

 returned safe, which however he had the good 

 fortune to do on the 17th of March, when he arrived 

 at Fort Enterprise, where he says, — " I had the 

 pleasure of meeting my friends all in good health, 

 after an absence of nearly five months, during 

 which time I had travelled one thousand one hun- 

 dred and four miles, on snow-shoes, and had no 

 other covering at night, in the woods, than a 

 blanket and deer-skin, with the thermometer fre- 

 quently at —40°, and once at —57° ; and sometimes 

 passing two or three days without tasting food.' , 

 Well may Franklin say, " I had every reason to 

 be much pleased with his conduct on this arduous 

 undertaking." 



With regard to the temperature of the winter, it 

 was not improved by the more northern situation 

 of Fort Enterprise. Augustus spoke so highly of 

 the warmth of a snow-house, that he was em- 

 ployed in the building of one, which he did after a 

 very speedy and clever operation, and of which 



