174 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



constant cracking of the ice, we did not get 

 much rest. 



Having collected with great care, and by 

 self-denial, two small packets of dried meat 

 or sinews, sufficient (for men who knew 

 what it was to fast) to last for eight days, 

 at the rate of one indifferent meal per day, 

 we prepared to set out on the 30th. I cal- 

 culated that we should be about fourteen 

 days in reaching Fort Providence ; and 

 allowing that we neither killed deer nor 

 found Indians, we could but be unprovided 

 with food six days, and this we heeded not 

 whilst the prospect of obtaining full relief 

 was before us. Accordingly we set out 

 against a keen north-east wind, in order to 

 gain the known route to Fort Providence. 

 We saw a number of wolves and some 

 crows on the middle of the lake, and sup- 

 posing such an assembly was not met idly, 

 we made for them and came in for a share 

 of a deer which they had killed a short time 

 before, and thus added a couple of meals to 

 our stock. By four P.M. we gained the 

 head of the lake, or the direct road to Fort 



