Chap. X. FRANKLIN AND RICHARDSON'S JOURNEY. 397 



became sulky, and still continued so powerful, that 

 it was strongly suspected he had a hidden supply 

 of meat, for his own use. Seeing the enduring 

 obstinacy and refractory spirit of this man, and 

 his positive refusal even to collect tripe de roche, 

 now their sole dependence, or to get fire-wood, the 

 Doctor told him, that if no relief came from Fort 

 Enterprise before the 20th, Hepburn and he should 

 be despatched thither with a compass to enable 

 them to find the house. 



But at last, a grave suspicion arose against this 

 man. On the evening of his arrival at the pines, 

 he pretended he had been in chase of some deer, 

 but could not come up with them ; yet he found a 

 wolf, which had been killed by the stroke of a 

 deer's horn, and he had brought them a part of it : — 



" We implicitly believed this story then, but afterwards 

 became convinced, from circumstances, the detail of which 

 may be spared, that it must have been a portion of the body 

 of Belanger or Perrault. A question of moment here pre- 

 sents itself; namely, whether he actually murdered these 

 men, or either of them, or whether he found the bodies in 

 the snow. Franklin, who is the best able to judge of the 

 matter, from knowing their situation in the snow at parting, 

 was strongly of opinion that both Belanger and Perrault 

 had been sacrificed ; that Michel having already destroyed 

 Belanger, completed his crime by Perrault's death in order 

 to screen himself from detection. With this idea upon our 

 minds, and none to assist us, Hepburn and myself, in gather- 

 ing as much tripe de roche as sufficed to prolong a miser- 

 able existence, and poor Hood getting weaker every day, 



