Chap. XII. BACK'S JOURNEY TO THE POLAR SEA. 475 



clearing up they were overjoyed to discover the 

 branching antlers of twenty reindeer on the sum- 

 mit of the adjacent hills. To see and pursue was 

 the work of a moment : — 



" It was a beautiful and interesting sight, for the sun 

 shone out, and lighting up some parts cast others into 

 deeper shade : the white ice reflected millions of dazzling 

 rays ; the rapid leapt and chafed in little ripples, which 

 melted away into the unruffled surface of the slumbering 

 lake ; abrupt and craggy rocks frowned on the right ; and, 

 on the left, the brown landscape receded until it was lost in 

 the distant blue mountains. The foreground was filled up 

 with the ochre-coloured lodges of the Indians, contrasting 

 with our own pale tents ; and to the whole scene animation 

 was given by the graceful motions of the unstartled deer, 

 and the treacherous crawling of the wary hunters." — p. 307. 



Mr. M'Leod had assembled some hunters to re- 

 turn to the fort by the best way to meet with 

 musk-oxen, the scarcity of animals increasing as 

 Back proceeded to the north. Among the group 

 of Indians he met with an old acquaintance, formed 

 when with Franklin, who went by the name of Green 

 Stockings, whose mother was afraid that if the 

 portrait he drew of her went to England, the king 

 would send for the original. 



" Though surrounded by a family, with one urchin in her 

 cloak clinging to her back and sundry other maternal ac- 

 companiments, I immediately recognised her, and called 

 her by her name ; at which she laughed, and said, * she 

 was an old woman now ;' begging at the same time that she 

 might be relieved by the ' medicine man, for she was very 

 much out of health/ However, notwithstanding all this, 



