OF THE POLAR SEA. 329 



Strong a sense of the omnipresence of a beneficent 

 God, that our situation, even in these wilds, ap- 

 peared no longer destitute ; and we conversed, 

 not only with calmness, but with cheerfulness, 

 detailing with unrestrained confidence the past 

 events of our lives, and dwelling with hope on 

 our future prospects. Had my poor friend been 

 spared to revisit his native land, I should look 

 back to this period with unalloyed delight. 



On the morning of the 29th, the weather, al- 

 though still cold, was clear, and I went out in 

 quest of tripe de roc he, leaving Hepburn to cut 

 willows for a fire, and Mr. Hood in bed. I had 

 no success, as yesterday's snow-drift was so 

 frozen on the surface of the rocks that I could 

 not collect any of the weed ; but on my return to 

 the tent, I found that Michel, the Iroquois, had 

 come with a note from Mr. Franklin, which stated, 

 that this man, and Jean Baptiste Belanger being 

 unable to proceed, were about to return to us, 

 and that a mile beyond our present encampment 

 there was a clump of pine trees, to which he re- 

 commended us to remove the tent. Michel m- 

 formed us that he quitted Mr. Franklin's party 

 yesterday morning, but, that having missed his 

 way, he had passed the night on the snow a mile 

 or two to the northward of us. Belanger, he said, 



