OF THE POLAR SEA. 371 



credit on the Company's books. These things 

 being, through the moderation of the Indians, ad- 

 justed with an unexpected facility, we gave them 

 a keg of mixed liquors, (five parts water,) and 

 distributed among them several fathoms of to- 

 bacco, and they retired to their tents to spend the 

 night in merriment. 



Adam, our interpreter, being desirous of uniting 

 himself with the Copper Indians, applied to me 

 for his discharge, which I granted, and gave him 

 a bill on the Hudson's Bay Company for the 

 amount of his wages. These arrangements being 

 completed, we prepared to cross the lake. 



Mr. Weeks provided Dr. Richardson and me 

 with a cariole each, and we set out at eleven A.M., 

 on the 15th, for Moose-deer Island. Our party 

 consisted of Belanger, who had charge of a sledge 

 laden with the bedding, and drawn by two dogs, 

 our two cariole men, Benoit, and Augustus. 

 Previous to our departure, we had another con- 

 ference with Akaitcho, who, as well as the rest 

 of his party, bade us fareweU, with a warmth of 

 manner rare among the Indians. 



The badness of Belanger's dogs, and tlie 

 roughness of the ice, impeded our progress very 

 much, and obliged us to encamp early. We had 

 a good fire made of the drift wood, which hues 



