262 



harmon's journal. 



hundred who came to Athabasca, twelve actu- 

 ally lost their lives by starvation ; and all the 

 others must have shared the same unhappy fate, 

 had not the people of the North West Compa- 

 ny supplied them with provisions. In short. 

 Lord Selkirk lost the last year, in fight and by 

 starvation, sixty eight of his men! and still, with 

 the phrenzy of a madman, he is resolved on 

 pursuing his wild projects. 



Wednesday, December 4. There is now about 

 a foot and an half of snow on the ground. 



I have sent fifteen men, with each a sledge 

 drawn by two dogs and loaded with salmon, to 

 M c Leod's Lake, for the subsistence of the peo- 

 ple who are to pass the winter there, and for 

 the additional number who will be there in the 

 spring, to make up the furs into packs. Salm- 

 on are our chief subsistence here ; and they are 

 taken only in the waters which are discharged 

 into the Pacific Ocean. The outlet of M c Leod's 

 Lake enters Peace River, whose waters, are 

 finally discharged into the North Sea. 



Thursday, January 2, 1817. I have just re- 

 turned from a neighbouring village, where my 

 interpreter gave one of the natives a decent 

 drubbing, for having stolen from us. Soon after, 

 the Indian who had been beaten, with a number 

 of his relations, flew to arms, and surrounded our 



