Chap. XII. BACK'S JOURNEY TO THE POLAR SEA. 469 



both.' This was jocosely remarked upon at the time by 

 Akaitcho and the four or five Indians who accompanied 

 him ; but the impression, it seems, had sunk deep, for on 

 Maufelly's seeing me fill my tent with smoke, and then 

 throw open the front and beat the sides all round with leafy- 

 branches, to drive out the stupified pests before I went to 

 rest, he could not refrain from expressing his surprise that 

 I should be so unlike the old chief, who would not destroy 

 so much as a single mosquito." — p. 180. 



A native Indian, who had left his party at 

 the mountains, and lost the only two charges of 

 powder in his possession, and was therefore helpless, 

 had been driven by necessity to follow the travellers 

 a long journey, as the only chance of obtaining the 

 means of sustaining his family till he could return 

 to his friends. " Had there been only my wife 

 with me," he said in a faint voice, " I would not 

 have troubled the chief, for we could have lived 

 upon berries ; but when I looked on my child, and 

 heard its cries, my heart failed me, and I sought 

 for relief." There needed no other appeal to Com- 

 mander Back; he furnished the poor man with a 

 liberal supply of provision and ammunition, and the 

 poor fellow went away the happiest of his tribe. 



Having: now reached the eastern shore of the 

 Great Slave Lake, Mr. M'Leod was directed to 

 prepare a building for their winter reception, after 

 Back's return from the discovery of the source of 

 the river which was to convey him to the sea- 

 coast. He set out for this purpose, and after 



