24 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 
knowledge. As the dirt accumulated about these 
people was visibly of a communicative nature, I 
removed at night into the open air, where the 
thermometer fell to 15° below zero, although it 
was the next day 60° above it. 
In the morning the Warrior and his companion 
arrived ; I found that, instead of hunting, they 
had passed the whole time in a drunken fit, at a 
short distance from the tent. In reply to our 
angry questions, the Warrior held out an empty 
vessel, as if to demand the payment of a debt, 
before he entered into any new negotiation. Not 
being inclined to starve his family, we set out for i 
another Indian tent, ten miles to the southward, 
but we found only the frame, or tent poles, stand- 
ing, when we reached the spot. The men, by 
digging where the fire-place had been, asce!- 
tained that the Indians had quitted it the day 
before ; and as their marches are short, when 
encumbered with the women and baggage, we 
sought out their track, and followed it. At an 
abrupt angle of it, which was obscured by trees, 
the men suddenly disappeared ; and, hastening 
forward to discover the cause, I perceived them 
both still rolling at the foot of a steepght over 
which they had been dragged while endeavouring 
to stop the descent of their sledges. The dogs 
were gazing silently, with the wreck of theit . 
