OWL RIVER. 



163 



and when we stopped to breakfast, I was 

 obliged to put a blanket over my shoulders, 

 as I stood by the fire, for warmth. The com- 

 fortable sensation however was, that we were 

 free from the annoyance and misery of the 

 mosquitoes ; cold, hunger, and thirst, are not 

 to be compared with the incessant suffering 

 which they inflict. We waded knee-deep 

 through Owl River, in the afternoon of the 

 15th. The weather was cold, and nothing was 

 to be seen in the Bay but floating ice. It was 

 rather late before we pitched the tent, and we 

 met with some difficulty in collecting a suf- 

 ficient quantity of drift wood on the shore, to 

 kindle a fire large enough to boil the kettle, 

 and cook the wild fowl that we had shot. The 

 next day we forded Broad River, on the banks 

 of which we saw several dens, which the bears 

 had scratched for shelter: and seeing the 

 smoke of an Indian tent at some distance 

 before us, in the direction we were going, we 

 quickened our step, and reached it before we 

 stopped to breakfast. We found the w T hole 

 family clothed in deer-skins, and upon a 

 hunting excursion from Churchill. The In- 

 dian, or rather a half-breed, was very com- 

 municative, and told me that though he was 

 leading an Indian life, his father was formerly 



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