228 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



our neighbourhood would have been of 

 little service to us, for our ammunition was 

 almost completely expended, though we 

 had dealt it of late with a very sparing 

 hand to the Indians. We had, however, 

 already secured in the store-house the car- 

 cases of one hundred deer, together with 

 one thousand pounds of suet, and some 

 dried meat ; and had, moreover, eighty 

 deer stowed up at various distances from 

 the house. The necessity of employing the 

 men to build a house for themselves, before 

 the weather became too severe, obliged us 

 to put the latter en cache, as the voyagers 

 term it, instead of adopting the more safe 

 plan of bringing them to the house. Put- 

 ting a deer en cache, means merely protect- 

 ing it against the wolves, and still more 

 destructive wolverenes, by heavy loads of 

 wood or stones ; the latter animal, however, 

 sometimes digs underneath the pile, and 

 renders the precaution abortive. 



On the 18th, Mr. Back and Mr. Wentzel 

 set out for Fort Providence, accompanied 

 by Beauparlant, Belanger, and two Indians, 



