98 



Journal of a Voyage through the 



that time, had been continually engaged in very toilsome 

 labour, with nothing more than a common shed to protect 

 them from the frost and snow. Such is the life which 

 these people lead ; and is continued with unremitting exer- 

 tion, till their strength is lost in premature old age. 



The Canadians remarked, that the weather we had on 

 the 25th, 26th, and 27th of this month, denoted such as 

 we might expect in the three succeeding months. On the 

 29th, the wind being at North-East, and the weather calm 

 and cloudy, a rumbling noise was heard in the air like dis- 

 tant thunder, when the sky cleared away in the South- 

 West ; from whence there blew a perfect hurricane, whieh 

 lasted till eight. Soon after it commenced, the atmosphere 

 became so warm that it dissolved all the snow on the 

 ground ; even the ice was covered with water, and had the 

 same appearance as when it is breaking up in the spring. 

 From eight to nine the weather became calm, but imme- 

 diately after a wind arose from the North-East with equal 

 violence, with clouds, rain, and hail, which continued 

 throughout the night and till the evening of the next day, 

 when it turned to snow. One of the people who wintered 

 at Fort Dauphin in the year 1780, when the small-pox 

 first appeared there, informed me, that the weather there 

 was of a similar description. 



January 1, 1793. On the first day of January, in con- 

 formity to the usual custom, awoke me at the break of day 

 with the discharge of fire-arms, with which they congra- 

 tulated the appearance of the new year. In return, they 

 were treated with plenty of spirits, and when there is any 

 flour, cakes are always added to their regales, which was 

 the case on the present occasion. 



On my arrival here last fall, I found that one of the 

 young Indians had lost the use of his right hand by the 

 bursting of a gun, and that his thumb had been maimed 

 in such a manner as to hang only by a small strip of flesh. 

 Indeed, when he was brought to me, his wound was in 

 such an offensive state, and emitted such a putrid smell, 

 that it required all the resolution I possessed to examine it. 

 His friends had done every thing in their power to relieve 

 him; but as it consisted only in singing about him, and 

 blowing upon his hand, the wound, as may be well ima- 

 gined, had got into the deplorable state in which I found 

 it. I was rather alarmed at the difficulty of the case, but 

 as the young man's life was in a state of hazard, I was 



