FROM FORT SMITH 'TO GREAT SLAVE LAKE 143 



After one or two of these attempts at fruitless persua- 

 sion I developed a large and righteous anger, which was 

 somewhat relieved by a cursing that exhausted a vocabu- 

 lary of wide and highly colored range, and which the Ind- 

 ians did not understand more's the pity, for I am sure 

 the brilliant and contrasting effects would have appealed 

 to their picturesque nature and thereafter they had not 

 the satisfaction of hearing a whimper nor of running away 

 from me. 



Later one of them came near ending my misery once 

 and for all time by felling a tree, which crashed into the 

 snow not six inches from where I was stooping tying my 

 moccasin. 



On the morning of the fourth day we came to the cabin 

 of Carr and Duncan, the only two white trappers in the 

 country. It was a joy to hear English again, and a com- 

 fort to get in-doors before a fire ; and when I left they 

 had braced me up mentally and physically by their hearty 

 welcome and the heaping plates of lynx meat they set in 

 front of me, and which is very tender and savory, and 

 tastes a little like veal. It was just as well I did eat plen- 

 teously here, for one of my stupid Indians, when repack- 

 ing the sledge, left out our small sack of provisions, and 

 that night when the discovery was made and for the re- 

 mainder of the trip we shared some wretched dried fish 

 with the dogs. 



The last half of the journey was exceedingly trying, 

 because the storms violently disputed our progress, and 

 the dogs were fagged by the depth of snow-fall. It was 

 on one of these last hard days that, as I opened my note- 

 book in the morning to write of the day before, I was re- 

 minded of a little dinner given me just on the eve of my 

 departure from New York, at which five of my warmest 

 friends had sat, and pledged my health and success, and 



