236 AN IMPROMPTU SUPPER. 



bank to procure our supper. With a hatchet our Hurons 

 dug two large holes in the ice. The admission of the 

 fresh air had probably the effect of giving the trouts an 

 unreflecting appetite ; for scarcely had we dropped our 

 lines into the water before one of those which were 

 swarming to the surface seized upon the bait, and im- 

 mediately found itself gently transported into a basket, 

 lined with moss, which one of our Indians had placed 

 close at hand. The existence of the poor fishes which 

 were thus secured was not prolonged beyond a few 

 minutes. After five or six blows of the tail, and as 

 many flutterings, their body stiffened, and a thin coat of 

 ice covered their scales. So that when we returned to 

 our hut, and drew our trout from the basket, you would 

 have supposed them to be fish which had been salted and 

 barrelled for years. 



While the captain and I were so successfully angling 

 in the river, the Redskins had felled as much fuel as 

 would be required for our fire ; and we found that they 

 had piled up the logs, all split and cut of the same size, 

 at one side of the door of our hut. Over the fire, sus- 

 pended from the roof by a cord woven out of flexible 

 lianas, boiled a great iron pot, filled to the very brini 

 with salt pork, pease, and biscuit. Beneath, on a bed of 

 ashes, simmered the tea-kettle, whose refreshing emana- 

 tions reached us in intermittent jets. 



The interior of the hut was thoroughly warmed, and, 

 thanks to our mantles stretched along the sides, we were 

 safe from all attacks of the icy temperature which reigned 

 without. Our Indians had manufactured some torches 

 of strips of birchen bark rolled round and round, and in- 



