RUNNING THE KAPIDS, 43, 
post, having been insufficient for the demand, had be- 
come exhausted, and the Indians who had come in to 
barter their furs were thus, far unable to obtain food in 
exchange, and were obliged, with their families, to subsist 
upon the few rabbits that might be caught in the woods. 
We were also out of supplies, but now the scows were 
hourly expected. Expectations, however, afforded poor 
satisfaction to hungry stomachs, and no less than five 
days passed before these materialized. In the mean- 
time, though we were not entirely without food our- 
selves, some of the natives suffered much distress. At 
one Cree camp visited I witnessed a most pitiable sight. 
There was the whole family of seven or eight persons 
seated on the ground about their smoking camp-fire, but 
without one morsel of food, while children, three or four 
years old, were trying to satisfy their cravings at the 
mother’s breast. We had no food to give them, but 
gladdened their hearts by handing around some pieces 
of tobacco, of which all Indians, if not all savages, are 
passionately fond. 
In addition to the unpleasantness created by lack of 
provisions, our stay at Fort McMurray was attended 
with extremely wet weather, which made it necessary 
to remain in camp most of the time, and to wade 
through no end of mud whenever we ventured out. 
On the evening of the 14th the long-looked-for scows 
with the supplies arrived. It will readily be imagined 
we were not long in getting out the provisions and 
making ready a supper more in keeping with our appe- 
tites than the meagre meals with which we had for 
several days been forced to content ourselves. The cause 
of delay, as Schott informed us, was the grounding of 
