OF THE POLAR- SEA. 



17 



such a task required. Fortunately nothing 

 serious occurred, though one of them once 

 fell with considerable violence. During the 

 day one of the hunters broke through the 

 ice, but was soon extricated ; when it be- 

 came dark we halted near the Bow String 

 Portage, greatly disappointed at not having 

 reached the lake. The weather was cloudy, 

 accompanied with thick mist and snow. 

 The Indians expected to have found here a 

 bear in its den, and to have made a hearty 

 meal of its flesh ; indeed it had been the 

 subject of conversation all day, and they 

 had even gone so far as to divide it, fre- 

 quently asking me what part I preferred ; 

 but when we came to the spot — oh, lament- 

 able ! it had already fallen a prey to the 

 devouring appetites of some more fortunate 

 hunters, who had only left sufficient evidence 

 that such a thing had once existed, and we 

 had merely the consolation of realizing an 

 old proverb. One of our men, however, 

 caught a fish, which, with the assistance of 

 some weed scraped from the rocks, (tripe de 

 roche,) which forms a glutinous substance, 



VOL. III. c 



