EXTRA ORDINAR Y APPETITES. 363 



where the deer could be distinguished a great way off by the contrast of 

 their dim colour with the pure white of the boundless waste. The hunters 

 then dispersed and advanced in such a manner as to intercept the deer in 

 their confused retreat to windward, the direction they almost invariably 

 followed. On one occasion I witnessed an extraordinary instance of affec- 

 tion in these timid creatures. Having brought down a fine doe at some 

 distance, I was running forward to despatch her with my knife when "a hand- 

 some young buck bounded up and raised his fallen favourite with his antlers. 

 She went a few paces and fell ; again he raised her, and continued whirling 

 around her, till a second ball — for hunger is ruthless — laid him dead at her 

 side." Precarious indeed was the subsistence of the party and their Indian 

 allies until the month of December, when the excessive cold drove the 

 deer to the shelter of the woods, where they were more accessible to the 

 hunters. 



The buildings of Fort Confidence consisted of a log-house forty feet long 

 and sixteen broad, with a chamber at one end for the leaders, a hall sixteen 

 feet square used as eating-room — the explorers never di7ied — ^kitchen, and 

 Indian workshop ; and a house for the men, thirty feet long and eighteen 

 broad. The whole, together with the store, forming three sides of a quad- 

 rangle fronting the south, was habitable before the close of October ; but 

 owing to the smallness of the timber of which the structures were built, and 

 the difficulty of procuring enough of the frozen earth to cover the light roofs, 

 there were chinks and crannies through which both snow and wind were 

 freely admitted, and the cold was consequently severe throughout the entire 

 winter. Near the close of December, when the thermometer stood at -49°, 

 Simpson cast a pistol-bullet of quicksilver, which, fired at a distance of ten 

 paces, passed through an inch plank, and flattened and broke against the 

 wall a few paces beyond. But if the explorers sometimes suffered severely 

 from cold, they were at least guaranteed against the greater calamity of 

 want. By the end of the year the hunters had accumulated two or three 

 weeks' provisions in advance, and no scarcity was experienced during the 

 remainder of the season. This is not a little surprising, considering the 

 immense quantities of food consumed at the fort daily by each individual. 

 " The daily ration served out to each man," writes Simpson, " was increased 

 from eight to ten, and, to some individuals, to twelve pounds of venison ; or, 

 when they could be got, four or five white fish weighing from fifteen to 

 twenty pounds. This quantity of solid food, immoderate as it may appear, 

 does not exceed the average standard of the country, and ought certainly to 

 appease even the moderate appetite of a French Canadian." Yet there was 

 one of these who complained of short commons, and did not scruple to help 

 himself to an additional supply when the opportunity offered. " It would 

 have taken twenty pounds of animal food daily to satisfy him." In these 



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