NORTHERN OCEAN 111 



economy in the expenditure of the oatmeal and other pro- 1770. 

 visions which they had received at the Fort, as they probably "^"^ "' 

 would have done, had they not relied firmly on finding a 

 supply at this place. This disappointment and loss was borne 

 by the Indians with the greatest fortitude ; and I did not hear 

 [67] one of them breathe the least hint of revenge in case they 

 should ever discover the offenders ; the only effect it had on 

 them was, that of making them put the best foot foremost. 

 This was thought so necessary, that for some time we walked 

 every day from morning till night. The days, however, 

 being short, our sledges heavy, and some of the road very 

 bad, our progress seldom exceeded sixteen or eighteen miles a 

 day, and some days we did not travel so much. 



On the eighteenth, as we were continuing our course to i8th, 

 the North West, up a small creek that empties itself into 

 Egg River, we saw the tracks of many deer which had crossed 

 that part a few days before ; at that time there was not a 

 fresh track to be seen : some of the Indians, however, who 

 had lately passed that way, had killed more than they had 

 occasion for, so that several joints of good meat were found 

 in their old tent-places ; which, though only sufficient for one 

 good meal, were very acceptable, as we had been in exceeding 

 straitened circumstances for many days. 



On the nineteenth, we pursued our course in the North 19th. 

 West quarter ; and, after leaving the above-mentioned creek, 

 traversed nothing but entire barren ground, with empty 

 bellies, till the twenty-seventh ; for though we arrived at some 27th. 

 woods on the twenty-sixth, and saw a few deer, four of which 

 the Indians killed, they were [68] at so great a distance from 

 the place on which we lay, that it was the twenty-seventh 

 before the meat was brought to the tents. Here the Indians 

 proposed to continue one day, under pretence of repairing their 

 sledges and snow shoes ; but from the little attention they 

 paid to those repairs, I was led to think that the want of food 

 was the chief thing that detained them, as they never ceased 



