50 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



" On quitting Fort Enterprise, with Mr. Wentzel 

 and two Canadians, accompanied by two hunters 

 and their wives, our route lay across the barren 

 hills. We saw, during the day, a number of 

 deer, and, occasionally, a solitary white wolf; 

 and in the evening halted near a small knot of 

 pines. Owing to the slow progress made by the 

 wives of the hunters, we only travelled the first 

 day a distance of seven miles and a half. During 

 the night we had a glimpse of the fantastic beau- 

 ties of the Aurora Borealis, and were somewhat 

 annoyed by the wolves, whose nightly howling in- 

 terrupted our repose. Early the next morning 

 we continued our march, sometimes crossing 

 small lakes (which were just frozen enough to 

 bear us,) and at other times going large circuits. 



m order to avoid those which 



were open. The 



walkmg was extremely bad throughout the day ; 

 for mdependent of the general unevenness of the 

 ground, and the numberless large stones which 

 lay scattered in every direction, the unusual 

 warrnth of the weather had dissolved the snow, 

 which not only kept us constantly wet, but de- 

 prived us of a firm footing, so that the men, with 



their heavy burdens, 



were m momentary appre- 



h ns,on of falhng. In the afternoon a fine herd 

 of deer was descried, and the Indians, who are 

 always anxious for the chase, and can hardly be 



