112 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1770. eating the whole day. Indeed for many days before we had 

 December. ^^^^ -^ ^^^^^ Want, and fof the last three days had not tasted 

 a morsel of any thing, except a pipe of tobacco and a drink of 

 snow water ; and as we walked daily from morning till night, 

 and were all heavy laden, our strength began to fail. I must 

 confess that I never spent so dull a Christmas ; and when I 

 recollected the merry season which was then passing, and 

 reflected on the immense quantities, and great variety of deli- 

 cacies which were then expending in every part of Christendom, 

 and that with a profusion bordering on waste, I could not 

 refrain from wishing myself again in Europe, if it had been 

 only to have had an opportunity of alleviating the extreme 

 hunger which I suffered with the refuse of the table of any 

 one of my acquaintance. My Indians, however, still kept in 

 good spirits ; and as we were then across all the barren ground, 

 and saw a few fresh tracks of deer, they began to think that 

 the worst of the road was over for that winter, and flattered 

 me with the expectation of soon meeting with deer and other 

 game in greater plenty than we had done since our departure 

 from the Fort. 



28th. [69] Early in the morning of the twenty-eighth, we again 

 set out, and directed our course to the Westward, through 

 thick shrubby woods, consisting chiefly of ill-shaped stunted 

 pines, with small dwarf junipers, intermixed here and there, 

 particularly round the margins of ponds and swamps, with 

 dwarf willow bushes ; and among the rocks and sides of the 

 hills were also some small poplars.^ 



30th. On the thirtieth, we arrived at the East side of Island 

 Lake,^ where the Indians killed two large buck deer ; but the 

 rutting season was so lately over, that their flesh was only 

 eatable by those who could not procure better food. In the 



[' Popiihis trenmloides (Michx.).] 



[* The name by which the Chipewyan Indians of Fort Churchill know this 

 lake is Nueltin (meaning Frozen-Island) Lake, which name seems to have 

 been corrupted on Mackenzie's map into " North Lined Lake." On the Cook 

 map it is marked Menishtick Lake, which is simply the Cree name for Island 



