292 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1772. every thing seemed to contribute to our happiness, as if 

 •^""^' desirous to make some amends for the severe hunger, cold, 

 and excessive hardships that we had suffered long before, and 

 which had reduced us to the greatest misery and want. 



Deer was so plentiful great part of the way, that the Indians 

 killed as many as were wanted, without going out of their road ; 

 and every lake and river to which we came seemed willing to 

 give us a change of diet, by affording us plenty of the finest fish, 

 which we caught either with hooks or nets. Geese, partridges, 

 gulls, and many other fowls, which are excellent eating, were 

 also in such plenty, that it only required ammunition, in skilful 

 hands, to have procured as many of them as we could desire. 



The only inconvenience we now felt was from frequent 

 showers of heavy rain ; but the intervals between these showers 

 being very warm, and the Sun shining bright, that difficulty 

 was easily overcome, especially as the belly was plentifully sup- 

 plied with excellent victuals. Indeed the [300] very thoughts 

 of being once more arrived so near home, made me capable of 

 encountering every difficulty, even if it had been hunger itself 

 in the most formidable shape. 

 i8th. On the eighteenth, we arrived at Egg River, from which 

 place, at the solicitation of my guide Matonabbee, I sent a 

 letter post-haste to the Chief at Prince of Wales's Fort, 

 advising him of my being so far advanced on my return. 

 The weather at this time was very bad and rainy, which caused 

 us to lose near a whole day ; but upon the fine weather 

 returning, we again proceeded at our usual rate of eighteen or 

 twenty miles a day, sometimes more or less, according as the 

 road, the weather, and other circumstances, would admit. ^ 



[^ In the text no indication is given of the course which he followed after 

 crossing Kazan River, but his map shows that he followed the route of his 

 journey outwards, crossing Fat, Island, Whiskey Jack, and Baralzoa Lakes. 

 The Cook map, however, shows that he went round to the north of Island 

 Lake, and doubtless he also went round the largest of the other lakes, for he 

 would hardly dare to cross them in the little canoes which he and the Indians 

 were using for crossing the streams.] 



