80 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1770. After two days good walking in our old track, we arrived 



2gth! at a part of Seal River called She-than-nee,^ where we pitched 

 our tent and set both our fishing-nets, intending to stay there 

 till the geese began to fly. Though we had seen several swans 



May. and some geese flying to the Northward, it was the thirteenth 

 ^ ' of May before we could procure any. On that day the 

 Indians killed two swans and three geese. This in some 

 measure alleviated our distress, which at that time was very 

 great ; having had no other subsistence for five or six days, 

 than a few cranberries, that we gathered from the dry ridges 

 where the snow was thawed away in spots ; for though we set 

 our fishing-nets in the best judged places, and angled at every 

 part that was likely to afixjrd success, we only caught three 

 small fish during the whole time. Many of the Northern 

 Indians, who had joined us on the 24th of April, remained 

 in our company for some time ; and though I well knew they 

 had had a plentiful winter, and had then good stocks of dried 

 meat by them, and [27] were also acquainted with our dis- 

 tress, they never gave me or my Southern companions the 

 least supply, although they had in secret amply provided for 

 our Northern guides. 



19th. ^y ^^^ nineteenth, the geese, swans, ducks, gulls, and 

 other birds of passage, were so plentiful, that we killed every 

 day as many as were sufficient for our support ; and having 

 stopped a few days to recruit our spirits after so long a fast, 



23d. on the twenty-third we began once more to proceed toward 

 the barren ground. Sossop having now perfectly recovered 

 from his late misfortune, everything seemed to have a favour- 

 able appearance ; especially as my crew had been augmented 

 to twelve persons, by the addition of one of my guide's 

 wives, and five others, whom I had engaged to assist in carry- 



[^ She-than-nee is clearly the same word as S/iefA?ia?tei, a Chipewyan word 

 meaning " high hill," and applied to a point on the north shore of Shethnanei 

 Lake. In February 1891, the Rev. J. (Bishop) Lofthouse visited some Indians 

 living at this place, accomplishing the journey out from Churchill in seven 

 days, and the return journey in six days.] 



