104 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1770. hummocks of shrubby woods [58] that might have afforded us 

 ' some shelter, yet the wind blew so hard, and the snow drifted 

 so excessively thick, that we could not see ten yards before us 

 the whole day. Between seven and eight in the evening my 

 dog, a valuable brute, was frozen to death ; so that his sledge, 

 which was a very heavy one, I was obliged to haul. Between 

 nine and ten at night we arrived at a small creek, on which 

 we walked about three quarters of a mile, when we came to a 

 large tuft of tall willows, and two or three sets of old tent- 

 poles. Being much jaded, we determined not to proceed any 

 farther that night ; so we went to work, and made the best 

 defence against the weather that the situation of the place and 

 our materials would admit. Our labour consisted only in 

 digging a hole in the snow, and fixing a few deer skins up to 

 windward of us ; but the most difficult task was that of 

 making a fire. When this was once accomplished, the old 

 tent poles amply supplied us with fuel. By the time we had 

 finished this business, the weather began to moderate, and the 

 drift greatly to abate ; so that the moon and the Aurora 

 Borealis shone out with great splendour, and there appeared 

 every symptom of the return of fine weather. After eating 

 a plentiful supper of venison, therefore, of which we had a 

 sufficient stock to last us to the Fort, we laid down and got 

 23rd. a little sleep. The next day proving fine and clear, though 

 excessively sharp, we proceeded on our journey early in the 

 morning, and at night lay on the South East side of Seal 

 River. We should have made a much longer day's [59] jour- 

 ney, had we not been greatly embarrassed at setting out, by 

 a jumble of rocks, which we could not avoid without going 

 greatly out of our way. Here I must observe, that we were 

 more than fortunate in not attempting to leave the little 

 creek where we had fixed our habitation the preceding night, 

 as the spot where we lay was not more than two or three 

 miles distant from this dangerous place ; in which, had we 

 fallen in with it in the night, we must unavoidably have been 



