RUNNING THE RAPIDS. 43 



post, having been insufficient for the demand, had be- 

 come exhausted, and the Indians who had come in to 

 barter their furs were thus far unable to obtain food in 

 exchange, and were obliged, with their families, to subsist 

 upon the few rabbits that might be caught in the woods. 

 We were also out of supplies, but now the scows were 

 hourly expected. Expectations, however, afforded poor 

 satisfaction to hungry stomachs, and no less than five 

 days passed before these materialized. In the mean- 

 time, though we were not entirely without food our- 

 selves, some of the natives suffered much distress. At 

 one Cree camp visited I witnessed a most pitiable sight. 

 There was the whole family of seven or eight persons 

 seated on the ground about their smoking camp-fire, but 

 without one morsel of food, while children, three or four 

 years old, were trying to satisfy their cravings at the 

 mother's breast. We had no food to give them, but 

 gladdened their hearts by handing around some pieces 

 of tobacco, of which all Indians, if not all savages, are 

 passionately fond. 



In addition to the unpleasantness created by lack of 

 provisions, our stay at Fort Me Murray was attended 

 with extremely wet weather, which made it necessary 

 to remain in camp most of the time, and to wade 

 through no end of mud whenever we ventured out. 



On the evening of the 14th the long-looked- for scows 

 with the supplies arrived. It will readily be imagined 

 we were not long in getting out the provisions and 

 making ready a supper more in keeping with our appe- 

 tites than the meagre meals with which we had for 

 several days been forced to content ourselves. The cause 

 of delay, as Schott informed us, was the grounding of 



