286 ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



sponse. We could do nothing more. We should have 

 taken our lives in hand and been useless to Bemah had 

 we gone back in an effort to trace him from where he had 

 strayed off. The print of a snow-shoe in that gale did 

 not last long enough to be seen by a man following close- 

 ly upon it, and to attempt to hunt up tracks a night 

 would have been utmost folly. 



I knew Beniah, if he were alive, would keep travelling 

 all night, as he had no lodge and no tea and nothing to 

 eat, and his only chance for his life was to make for the 

 woods. He would, of course, travel south, and I was con- 

 fident, from my knowledge of his skill, that he would 

 pretty nearly hit the right direction. I knew if he were 

 alive he would reach the wood ahead of us. Still we kept 



out our scouts and contin- 

 ued our signalling. 



It stormed all night of 

 the third day, and our 

 fourth in the Land of Lit- 

 tle Sticks opened like the 

 terrible second. How we 

 managed to keep going at 

 all I declare I cannot now 

 NATIVE "SNOW-GLASSES" understand. Our allowance 



of food was no greater than 



we had averaged in the Barrens proper, and the coat- 

 ing of ice in which we were all incased of course had not 

 been thawed out, but on the contrary was thickened by the 

 continuous storming. But I was nerved up, and I suppose 

 the Indians were also, by the hope of reaching timber. 

 We knew we must be very close to it, but we could not 

 see far enough ahead, as we came on to the ridges, to sub- 

 stantiate our hopes. We simply kept plodding and plod- 

 ding away, expecting every hour to come on to the timber, 



