NORTHERN OCEAN 83 



Notwithstanding these accumulated and complicated hard- 1770. 

 ships, we continued in perfect health and good spirits ; and J™^' 

 my guide, though a perfect niggard of his provisions, especi- 

 ally in times of scarcity, gave us the strongest assurance of 

 soon arriving at a plentiful country, which would not only 

 afford us a certain supply of provisions, but where we should 

 meet with other Indians, who probably would be willing to 

 carry part of our luggage. This news naturally gave us great 

 consolation ; for at that time the weight of our constant loads 

 was so great, that when Providence threw any thing in our 

 way, we could not carry above two days provisions with us, 

 which indeed was the chief reason of our being so frequently 

 in want. 



From the twentieth to the twenty-third we walked every ^3d. 

 day near twenty miles, without any other subsistence [31] than 

 a pipe of tobacco, and a drink of water when we pleased : 

 even partridges and gulls, which some time before were in 

 great plenty, and easily procured, were now so scarce and shy, 

 that we could rarely get one ; and as to geese, ducks, &c., they 

 had all flown to the Northward to breed and molt. 



Early in the morning of the twenty-third, we set out as 

 usual, but had not walked above seven or eight miles before 

 we saw three musk-oxen grazing by the side of a small lake. 

 The Indians immediately went in pursuit of them ; and as 

 some of them were expert hunters, they soon killed the whole 

 of them. This was no doubt very fortunate ; but, to our 

 great mortification, before we could get one of them skinned, 

 such a fall of rain came on, as to put it quite out of our 

 power to make a fire ; which, even in the finest weather, could 

 only be made of moss, as we were near an hundred miles from 

 any woods. This was poor comfort for people who had not 

 broke their fast for four or five days. Necessity, however, 

 has no law ; and having been before initiated into the method 

 of eating raw meat, we were the better prepared for this 

 repast : but this was by no means so well relished, either by 



