142 Thirty Years 
aurora, and Dr. Richardson contrived to obtain from 
under the snow specimens of most of the lichens in the 
neighborhood, and to make himself acquainted with 
the mineralogy of the surrounding country. 
The Sabbath was always a day of rest with us ; the 
woodmen were required to provide for the exigencies 
of that day on Saturday, and the party were dressed in 
their best attire. Divine service was regularly per- 
formed, and the Canadians attended, and behaved 
with great decorum, although they were all Roman 
Catholics, and but little acquainted with the language 
in which the prayers were read. I regretted much that 
we had not a French prayer-book, but the Lord’s 
Prayer and Creed were always read to them in their 
own language, 
Our diet consisted almost entirely of the reindeer 
meat, varied twice a week by fish, and occasionally by. 
a little flour, but we had no vegetables of any descrip- 
tion. On the Sunday mornings we dravk a cup ot 
chocolate, but our greatest luxury was tea (without 
sugar), of which we regularly partook twice a day. 
With reindeer’s fat, and strips of cotton shirts, we 
formed candles ; and Hepburn acquired considerable 
skill in the manufacture of soap, from wood-askes, fat, 
and ‘salt. The formation of soap was considered as 
rather a mysterious operation by our Canadians, and, 
in their hands, was always supposed to fail if a woman 
