OF THE POLAR SEA. 317 



Belanger it was very unsafe for him to attempt 

 it alone, and that he would be several days in 

 accomplishing it. He stated, however, that as 

 the track was beaten, he should experience little 

 fatigue, and seemed so confident, that I suffered 

 him to depart with a supply of singed hide. 

 Next day I received information which explained 

 why he was so unwiUing to acquaint us with the 

 situation of Mr. Back's party. He dreaded that 

 I should resolve upon joining it, when our num- 

 bers would be so great as to consume at once 

 every thing St. Germain might kill, if by accident 

 he should be successful in hunting. He even en- 

 deavoured to entice away our other hunter Adam, 

 and proposed to him to carry off the only kettle we 

 had, and without which we could not have subsisted 

 two days. Adam's inabihty to move, however, 

 precluded him from agreeing to the proposal, 

 but he could assign no reason for not acquaintmg 

 me with it previous to Belanger's departure. I 

 was at first inclined to consider the whole matter 

 as a fiction of Adam's, but he persisted in his 

 story without wavering; and Belanger, when we 

 met again, confessed that every part of it was 

 true. It is painful to have to record a fact so 

 derogatory to human nature, but I have deemed 

 it proper to mention it, to shew the difficulties we 

 had to contend with, and the effect which distress 



