174 LEAVE THE AH-HEL-DESSY. 



sisted in declaring was impossible ; and the trusty 

 and battered canoe being left, with a few other 

 things in cache, each man was laden with a 

 weight of one hundred and twenty pounds, and 

 began to pick his way up the steep and irregular 

 sides of the hills. On gaining the summit, 

 Maufelly pointed out to me the spot where 

 Sanpere turned back when he was sent to look 

 for the Thlew-ee-choh ; so that he had never left 

 the woods, and, consequently, had not been more 

 than half the distance. * 



At first, we walked with tolerable speed over 

 the broken rocks, and through the intersecting 

 gullies ; but the kind of ladder exercise which this 

 imposed taxed the muscles so severely, that the 

 strongest was fain to slacken his pace, as the 

 same interruptions and impediments multiplied 

 upon us. We had every disadvantage in follow- 

 ing the stream ; and, as I could now trace it in a 

 westerly direction as far as a range of mountains 

 that cut it at right angles, and along the base of 

 whicli it would necessarily flow, there could be no 

 reason to impose upon my crew the fatigue of 

 going there, when, by following a straight line 

 to the east end of Slave Lake, the distance and 

 labour might be so materially lessened. 



I took leave, therefore, of the Ah-hel-dessy, 



* See page 87. 



