In the Arctic Regions. 385 
contributed to the restoration of our health ; so that, 
by the end of February, the swellings of our limbs, 
which had returned upon us, had entirely subsided, 
and we were able to walk to any part of the island. 
Our appetites gradually moderated, and we nearly re- 
gained our ordinary state of body before the spring. 
Hepburn alone suffered from a severe attack of rheu- 
matism, which confined him to his bed for some weeks. 
The usual symptoms of spring having appeared, on 
the 25th of May we prepared to embark for Fort 
Chipewyan. Fortunately, on the following morning, 
a canoe arrived from that place with the whole of the 
stores which we required for the payment of Akaitcho 
and the hunters, It was extremely gratifying to us 
to be thus enabled, previous to our departure, to make 
arrangements respecting the payment of our late In- 
dian companions ; and the more so, as we had recently 
discovered that Akaitcho, and the whole of the tribe, 
in- consequence of the death of the leader’s mother, 
and the wife of our old guide Keskarrah, had broken 
and destroyed every useful article belonging to them, 
and that they were in the greatest distress. It was an 
additional pleasure to find our stock of ammunition 
was more than sufficient to pay them what was due, 
and that we could make a considerable present of this 
most essential article to every individual that had been 
‘attached to the a ua 
