A JACK-OF-ALL TRADES. 267 



solitary meal. But as we are not accustomed to such 

 sobriety, let us fall to." 



And, seating himself on the trunk of a prostrate tree, 

 he eagerly attacked the good things set before him. 



I must here confess, apart from the fact that hunger is 

 the best sauce, that the deer-steaks and the trout were 

 worthy of the table of the most fastidious epicure. It 

 WHS with difficulty Jack could obtain a few fragments of 

 the dinner to appease his hunger ; fortunately, he did not 

 dislike raw meat, and Mona'i cut for him two or three 

 large slices, which more than satisfied his wants. A pipe 

 of Indian tobacco brought our banquet to a satisfactory 

 termination, and we stretched ourselves on the ground, 

 waiting until Mona'i had finished cutting up the stag. 



Mr. Howard and myself had enjoyed in this way about 

 three-quarters of an hour's rest, when Monai advanced 

 towards us, drawing with a leather thong a sledge on 

 which he had deposited all the venison. Not only had 

 the Indian flayed the animal, and wrapped up in the skin 

 all the portions he had selected for our use, but he had 

 also constructed, in less than an hour, the sledge which 

 carried them ; and the rude vehicle was so substantial 

 that it was capable of bearing one hundred and fifty 

 pounds of meat. 



We continued our route ; but did not reach the country 

 where we expected to find our cariboos until the sun was 

 on the point of disappearing below the horizon. 



The region into which we had penetrated was covered 

 with wood. In front of us rose a lofty mountain, and in 

 the valley beneath our feet flowed, over a bed of rock, a 

 torrent whose waters boiled like those of a thermal spring. 



Everywhere upon the snow the ordure of the deer was 



