NORTHERN OCEAN 63 



ine • but we had frequently seen the looming of woods to the 1769. 



° , , November. 



South West. 



The cold being now very intense, our small stock, of 

 English provisions all expended, and not the least thing to be 

 got on the bleak hills we had for some time been walking on, 

 it became necessary to strike more to the Westward, which we 

 accordingly did, and the next evening arrived at some small 19th. 

 patches of low scrubby woods, where we saw the tracks of 

 several deer,^ and killed a few partridges. The road we had 

 traversed for many days before, was in general so rough and 

 stony, that our sledges were daily breaking ; and to add to the 

 inconveniency, the land was so barren, as not to afford us 

 materials for repairing them : but the few woods we now fell 

 in with, amply supplied us with necessaries for those repairs ; 

 and as we were then enabled each night to pitch proper tents, 

 our lodging was much more comfortable than it had been for 

 many nights before, while we were on the barren grounds, 

 where, in general, we thought ourselves well off if we could 

 scrape together as many shrubs as would make a fire ; but it 

 [4] was scarcely ever in our power to make any other defence 

 against the weather, than by digging a hole in the snow down 

 to the moss, wrapping ourselves up in our clothing, and lying 

 down in it, with our sledges set up edgeways to windward. 



On the twenty-first, we did not move; so the Indian men 21st. 

 went a hunting, and the women cut holes in the ice and caught 

 a few fish in a small lake, by the side of which we had pitched 

 our tents. At night the men returned with some venison, 

 having killed three deer, which was without doubt very accept- 

 able ; but our number being great, and the Indians having such 

 enormous stomachs, very little was left but fragments after the 

 two or three first good meals. Having devoured the three 

 deer, and given some necessary repairs to our sledges and snow 

 shoes, which only took one day, we again proceeded on toward 

 the North West by West and West North West, through low 



[^ Rangifer arcticus (Rich.). — E. A. P.] 



