OF THE POLAR SEA. 105 



stayed behind Mr. Franklin's party, and 

 declared that he would set out for the 

 house at once if he knew the way. We 

 endeavoured to sooth him, and to raise his 

 hopes of the Indians speedily coming to our 

 relief, but without success. He refused to 

 assist us in cutting wood, but about noon, 

 after much solicitation, he set out to hunt. 

 Hepburn gathered a kettleful of tripe de 

 roche, but froze his fingers. Both Hepburn 

 and I fatigued ourselves much to-day in 

 pursuing a flock of partridges from one 

 part to another of the group of willows, in 

 which the hut was situated, but we were 

 too weak to be able to approach them with 

 sufficient caution. In the evening Michel 

 returned, having met with no success. 



Next day he refused either to hunt or 

 cut wood, spoke in a very surly manner, 

 and threatened to leave us. Under these 

 circumstances, Mr. Hood and I deemed it 

 better to promise if he would hunt diligently 

 for four days, that then we would give 

 Hepburn a letter for Mr. Franklin, a com- 

 pass, inform him what course to pursue, 



