290 ANOTHER CACHE. 



ness or seventy ; all that is required is a steady 

 firmness, and never overlooking an attempt at 

 deception, however plausible. No people scru- 

 tinise more narrowly the behaviour of those 

 with whom they have to deal; and if they once 

 perceive that they cannot lie or equivocate with- 

 out detection, they will cease to make the attempt, 

 though, from a natural propensity to falsehood 

 and the habitual character of their speech, they 

 will do so to a stranger most gratuitously. 



Our guide led us in a tortuous direction, 

 among the black and rotten ice, and frequently 

 halted to try its strength by pressing on it with 

 his feet, or striking it with the handle of an axe ; 

 but such over caution — proper enough, if we had 

 had time — ill accorded with my anxiety to get 

 quickly forward : and on such occasions after- 

 wards, Peter Taylor (a half-breed) boldly led 

 the way across any suspected place. Still, con- 

 stant impediments presented themselves in some 

 shape or other, from open water, ice, or snow ; 

 but all were happily surmounted : and when we 

 had made a short portage across a point of land, 

 we came to another cache containing five musk 

 oxen and a deer. The latter only was taken, 

 the remainder being left to be converted into 

 dried meat, for the supply of Mr. MTeod's party 

 on their return. 



We now entered upon Lake Aylmer, and 

 made for a detached and rounded mass of rock 



