58 A JOURNEY TO THE 
1770. ing the whole day, and it was not tillafter ten at 
Urey night that we could find the fmalleft tuft of woods 
November: to put up in; for though we well knew we muft 
have pafled by feveral hummocks of fhrubby woods 
that might have afforded us fome fhelter, yet the 
wind blew fo hard, and the {now drifted fo ex-. 
ceflively thick, that we could not fee ten yards 
before us the whole day. Between feven and 
eight in the evening my dog, a valuable brute, 
was frozen to death; fo that his fledge, which 
was a very heavy one, I was obliged to haul. 
Between nine and ten at night we arrived at a 
{mall creek, on which we walked about three 
quarters ofa mile, when we came to a large tuft 
of tall willows,:and two or three fets of old 
tent-poles. Being much jaded, we determined 
not to proceed any farther that night; fo we 
went to work, and made the beft defence againft 
the weather that the fituation of the place and 
our materials would admit. Our labour confift- 
ed only in digging a hole in the fnow, and fixing 
a few deer {kins up to windward of us; but the 
mofl difficult tafk was that of making a fire. 
When this was once accomplifhed, the old tent 
poles amply fupplied us with fewel. By the time 
we had finifhed this bufinefs, the weather began 
to moderate, and the drift greatly to abate; fo 
that the moon and the Aurora Borealis fhone out 
with great {plendor, and there appeared every 
fymptom of the return of fine weather. After 
eating a plentiful fupper of venifon, therefore, 
of which we had a fuflicient ftock to laft us to 
the 
