In the Arctic Regions. 371 
course of the river to the lower lake, when St. Germain _ 
fell in, which-obliged us to encamp directly to prevent 
his being frozen ; indeed we were all-glad of stopping, 
for in our meagre and reduced state it was impossible 
to resist the weather, which at any other time would 
have been thought fine ; my toes were frozen, and al- 
though wrapped in a blanket I could not keep my 
hands warm. 
The 12th was excessively cold with fresh breezes, 
Our meal at night consisted of scraps of old deer skins 
and swamp tea, and the men complained. greatly of - 
their increasing debility. The following morning I 
sent St. Germain to hunt, intending to go some dis- 
tance down the lake, but the weather becoming ex- 
_ceedingly thick with snow storms, we were prevented . 
from moving. He returned without success, not hav- 
ing seen any animals. We had nothing to eat. 
In the morning of the 14th the part of the lake be- 
fore us was quite frozen. There was so much uncer- 
, tainty in St. Germain’s answers as to the chance of, 
any Indians being in the direction we. were then going, 
(although he had previously said that the leader had 
told him he should be there,) and he gave me so much 
dissatisfaction in his hunting excursions, that I was in- 
duced. to send a note to the Commander, whom I sup- 
posed to be by this time at Fort Enterprize, to inform 
him of our situation; not that I imagined for a mo- 
