80 ARRIVAL AT THE COAST 



and prepared to cross. Our dogs carried about twenty pounds 

 and each of us had a load to carry also. I found that the ice was 

 so smooth that I could draw my pack along on it, which was 

 easier than carrying it, and the others did the same, excepting 

 the dogs. We had noticed, when starting, that cracks would run 

 across the ice, out, apparently, for miles, and we heard them run- 

 ning along. I took little notice of this at first but soon saw that 

 when a dog would cross a crack with his load the ice on one side 

 would sink and the water ooze up. I thought little of it, but the 

 guide, Sinclair, in changing his pack let his gun fall and the butt 

 broke a hole in the ice and the water flowed up. He immediately 

 yelled to us to separate and try to make shore as the ice was very 

 dangerous. By God's help, we reached the shore without any 

 mishap and ventured no more on ice for some time. 



For the next few days, we struggled on, crossing difficult 

 country until we came to Muskeg River where I was exhausted 

 owing to the load that I had to carry. Here, we hired three 

 Indians to take our loads to Fort St. James and we plodded on. 



On the evening of the 13th, we reached Carrier Lake where 

 we camped and the night was bitterly cold. As we lay in the 

 open camp by the lake, the ice on it, and the trees around us, 

 kept cracking and between them they caused me to lie awake and 

 the brightness of the night, added to the intensity of the cold, 

 made it a night long to be remembered. 



In the morning, we started to cross the lake with a strong 

 wind in our backs and on the way my cap flew off and went at a 

 terrible rate across until it was nearly out of sight and, under the 

 clear ice beneath our feet, could be seen water and occasionally 

 fish and this caused me to almost lose my nerve and I could scarce- 

 ly keep my feet as we plodded on towards the shore. We reached 

 it almost where my hat had arrived sometime before and in a 

 short distance we had to cross the discharge of another lake where 

 the ice was very thin. I, being without a load, crossed first to 

 see if it would bear and I reached the shore in safety, while an 

 Indian of the party broke through and in a moment, almost, we 

 had a fire lit and he changed his clothes and moccasins for dry 

 ones and was none the worse. If we had all been white men he 



