APPALLING VISITATIONS. 209 



their superstition, I fear, would have fixed the 

 blame on the expedition ; but it appeared that 

 the two preceding years had been pregnant with 

 more than ordinary evils to the different tribes 

 inhabiting the country about Slave Lake and 

 the M c Kenzie River. To the westward, indeed, 

 and more directly in the neighbourhood of the 

 Riviere au Liard, forty of the choicest hunters 

 among the Chipewyans had been destroyed by 

 actual famine ; many others had not yet been 

 heard of; and the scattered survivors, from the 

 rigours of the climate, and the difficulty of pro- 

 curing a single animal, had experienced the se- 

 verest hardships which even their hardy natures 

 were capable of sustaining. Sometimes unusual 

 and appalling visitations carried them off, as in 

 the case of two women and their children, who 

 with their laden dogs were travelling near the 

 mountains, towards their tents ; when suddenly, 

 one of them called out in alarm, and before they 

 had time to fly, they were caught in a whirlwind, 

 and in an instant swept into eternity. One boy 

 only out of the number was found, and he died 

 in excruciating pain the same night. 



December 16. — The interpreter came from 

 one of the fishing stations with an account of 

 the loss of some nets, and the inadequacy of 

 their means of support. They seldom took more 

 than thirteen small fish in a day, and the Indians, 



p 



