27S JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



were with them, having left the canoe, which, they 

 said, was so completely broken by another fall, 

 as to be rendered incapable of repair, and en- 

 tirely useless. The anguish this inteUigence 

 occasioned may be conceived, but it is beyond 

 my power to describe it. Impressed, however, 

 with the necessity of taking it forward, even in 

 the state these men represented it to be, we 

 urgently desired them to fetch it ; but they de- 

 clined going, and the strength of the officers was 

 inadequate to the task. To their infatuated ob- 

 stinacy on this occasion, a great portion of the 

 melancholy circumstances which attended our 

 subsequent progress may, perhaps, be attributed. 

 The men now seemed to have lost all hope of 

 being preserved ; and all the arguments we could 

 use failed in stimulating them to the least exer- 

 tion. After consuming the remains of the bones 

 and horns of the deer we resumed our march, and 

 in the evening, reached a contracted part of the 

 lake, which perceiving to be shallow, we forded, 

 and encamped on the opposite side. Heavy rain 

 began soon afterwards, and continued all the 

 night. On the following morning the rain had 

 so_ wasted the snow, that the tracks of Mr. Back 

 and his companions, who had gone before with 

 the hunters, were traced with difficulty ; and the 

 frequent showers during the day almost obliter- 



