In the Arctic Regions. 301 
quite exhausted. The former, bursting into tears, 
declared his inability to. proceed with the party, and 
begged me to let him go back next morning to the 
tent, and shortly afterwards Michel made the same 
request. I was in hopes they might recover a little 
strength by the night’s rest, and therefore deferred 
giving any perthission until the morning. The sud- 
den failure in the strength of these men cast a gloom 
over the rest, which I tried in vain to remove, by re- 
peated assurances that the distance to Fort Enterprize 
was short, and that we should, in all probability, reach 
it in four days. Not being able to find any tripe de 
roche, we drank an infusion of the Labrador tea plant, 
(ledum palustre,) and ate a few morsels of burnt 
leather for supper. We were unable to raise the tent, 
and found its weight too great to carry it on; we, 
therefore, cut it up, and took a part of the canvass for 
acover. The night was bitterly cold, and though we 
lay as close to each other as possible, having no shel- 
ter, we could not keep ourselves sufficiently warm to 
sleep. A strong gale came on after midnight, which 
increased the severity of the weather. In the morning 
Belanger and Michel renewed their request to be per- 
mitted to go back to the tent, assuring me they were 
still weaker than on the preceding evening, and less 
capable of going forward ; and they urged, that the 
stopping at a place where there was a supply of tripe 
