OUR CHEERLESS SITUATION. 293 



About midnight the guides hesitated to pro- 

 ceed, on account of the dense fog : they 

 thought they had already erred, and affected 

 to be fearful of misleading me ; but to this 

 pretence I quickly put an end by directing the 

 route with the compass. It must be confessed 

 that the travelling was by no means agreeable ; 

 for to say nothing of the darkness, the fog 

 almost wet us through, creating a chill which 

 exercise was unable to overcome. 



A wild rocky point which we made I recog- 

 nised as one of my last year's encamping places, 

 and was not a little glad to find that we were 

 within one march of Sand Hill Bay, where our 

 labours on this lake would terminate. About a 

 mile further we stopped, and the boat arrived at 

 7 a.m. of the 26th. 



Throughout the whole of this day not a 

 gleam of sunshine came to cheer our spirits or 

 dry our wet clothes ; on the contrary, we had a 

 weary continuation of gloomy weather, and rain 

 in torrents. The night was yet more for- 

 bidding, and when the usual time of departure 

 came we could not distinguish objects a hun- 

 dred yards off. Under such circumstances to 

 continue the route was impossible. All were 

 drenched to the skin, and no fire could be 

 made ; but the men, with great resignation, 

 making the best of their damp lodgings, looked 



u 3 



