OF THE POLAR SEA. 67 



half. Belanger and Michel were left far 

 behind, and when they arrived at the en- 

 campment appeared quite exhausted. The 

 former, bursting into tears, declared his 

 inability to proceed, and begged me to let 

 him go back next morning to the tent, and 

 shortly afterwards Michel made the same 

 request. I was in hopes they might recover 

 a little strength by the night's rest, and 

 therefore deferred giving any permission 

 until morning. The sudden failure in the 

 strength of these men cast a gloom over 

 the rest, which I tried in vain to remove, 

 by repeated assurances that the distance to 

 Fort Enterprise was short, and that we 

 should, in all probability, reach it in four 

 days. Not being able to find any tripe de 

 roche, we drank an infusion of the Labrador 

 tea plant (ledum palustre), and ate a few 

 morsels of burnt leather for supper. We 

 were unable to raise the tent, and found its 

 weight too great to carry it on ; we, there- 

 fore cut it up, and took a part of the canvass 

 for a cover. The night was bitterly cold, 

 and though we lay as close to each other as 

 f 2 



