ADIEU. 171 



rations and about half-a-dozen pounds of deer-meat were 

 all the available provisions ; their weapons, two tin cups 

 and a fryingpan, a couple of blankets each, to sleep 

 in, and a light axe completed their equipment. Very 

 light marching order for men starting out on a journey so 

 full of uncertainties, and with so many prospective 

 perils; its direction vague, its distance unknown, a path 

 over the mountains to find of which our only information 

 was its name and that it was to the north of us ; chances 

 of being snowed-up, of being lost, of being frozen, of 

 sinking in some immense snowdrift and being smothered ! 

 We bid one another adieu, therefore, with a solemn feeling 

 that the chances were against our all meeting again ; 

 and though everyone spoke cheerfully and tried to be jolly, 

 the attempt was a manifest and miserable failure. I 

 know that when I and my then sole companion returned 

 to camp we had gone a short way with the others to start 

 them off we felt very downhearted and forlorn. Perhaps 

 our recent diet had something to answer for in this respect. 

 Boiled maize may be a very virtuous regimen, but it is em- 

 phatically not one conducive to high spirits and a feeling of 

 gaiety. 



The afternoon we spent setting every trap we had to catch 

 rabbits, but without much hope of success, as we knew 

 that, thanks to the foxes and wild-cats, they were very 

 scarce. 



For some days our occupation was seeking the runaway 

 stock, and at the same time keeping a good look-out for 

 signs of game, for rabbit-catching, as we feared it would 

 prove to be a myth. 



