OF THE POLAR SEA. 



81 



of restoring him to health seemed to absorb 

 all regard for their own situation. I wit- 

 nessed with peculiar pleasure this conduct, 

 so different from that which they had 

 recently pursued, when every tender feeling 

 was suspended by the desire of self-preser- 

 vation. They now no longer betrayed 

 impatience or despondency, but were com- 

 posed and cheerful, and had entirely given 

 up the practice of swearing, to which the 

 Canadian voyagers are so lamentably ad- 

 dicted. Our conversation naturally turned 

 upon the prospect of getting relief, and 

 upon the means which were best adapted 

 for obtaining it. The absence of all traces 

 of Indians on Winter River, convinced me 

 that they were at this time on the way to 

 Fort Providence, and that by proceeding 

 towards that post we should overtake them, 

 as they move slowly when they have their 

 families with them. This route also offered 

 us the prospect of killing deer in the vicinity 

 of Rein-Deer Lake, in which neighbourhood 

 our men, in their journey to and fro last 

 winter, had always found them abundant, 



VOL. IV. G 



