70 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



next operation. Scarcely was one place cured 

 by constant friction than another was frozen ; and 

 though there was nothing pleasant about it, yet 

 it was laughable enough to observe the dexterity 

 wliich was used in changing the position of the 

 hand from the face to the mitten, and vic& versa. 

 One of the men was severely affected, the whole 

 side of his face being ahnost raw. Towards sun- 

 set I suffered so much in my knee and ankle, from 

 a recent sprain, that it was with difficulty I could 

 proceed with snow-shoes to the encampment on 

 tlie Stony Islands. But in this point I was not 

 smgular ; for Beauparlant was almost as bad, and 

 without the same cause. 



j?n^^*'- 1 ' ^^ ^^^ °"* ^^^^ a quick step, the wind 

 '""''^^>- ^- still blowing fresh from the north-west, 

 which seemed in some measure to invigorate the 

 dogs ; for towards sunset they left me a consider- 

 able distance behind. Indeed my legs and ankles 



were now so swelled, that it 



1 excessive pam 



to drag the snow-shoes after me. At night we 

 halted on the banks of Stony River, when I gave 

 tlie men a glass of grog, to commemorate the new 

 year ; and the next day, January 2, we arrived 

 at *ort Cbpeywan, after a journey often days 

 and four hom:s-the shortest time in which the 

 distance had been done at the same season of the 

 year. I found Messrs. G. Keith and S. M'GiUi- 



