144 Thirty Years 
period of its arrival On the present occasion we 
could only treat them with a little flour and fat; 
these were both considered as great luxuries, but still 
the feast was defective from the want of rum, although 
we promised them a little when it should arrive., 
The early part. of January proved mild, the ther- 
mometer rose to 20° above zero, and we were surpris- 
ed by the appearance of a kind of damp fog approach- 
ing very nearly to rain. The Indians expressed their 
astonishment at this circumstance, and declared the 
present to be one of the warmest winters they had ever 
experienced. Some of them reported that it had ac- 
tually rained in the woody parts of the country. In 
the latter part of the month, however, the thermome- 
ter again descended to — 49°, and the mean temper- 
ature for the month proved to be —15.6°. Owing to 
the fogs that obscured the sky, the aurora was visible 
only upon eighteen nights in the ‘month. 
On the 15th seven of our men arrived from Fort 
Providence with two kegs of rum, one barrel of pow- 
der, sixty pounds of ball, two rolls of tobacco, and 
some clothing. They had been twenty-one days on 
their march from Slave Lake, and the labor they un-. 
derwent was sufficiently evinced by their sledge-collars 
having worn out the shoulders of their coats. Their 
loads weighed from sixty to ninety pounds each, ex- 
clusive of their bedding and provisions, which at start- 
