256 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



the Sunday mornings we drank a cup of 

 chocolate, but our greatest luxury was tea 

 (without sugar), of which we regularly par- 

 took twice a-day. With rein-deer's fat, and 

 strips of cotton shirts, we formed candles ; 

 and Hepburn acquired considerable skill in 

 the manufacture of soap, from the wood- 

 ashes, fat and salt. The formation of soap 

 was considered as rather a mysterious ope- 

 I ration by our Canadians, and, in their hands, 

 | was always supposed to fail if a woman 

 I approached the kettle in which the ley was 

 boiling. Such are our simple domestic 

 details. 



On the 30th, two hunters came from the 

 leader, to convey ammunition to him, as 

 soon as our men should bring it from Fort 

 Providence. 



The men, at this time, coated the walls 

 of the house on the outside, with a thin 

 mixture of clay and water, which formed a 

 crust of ice, that, for some days, proved 

 impervious to the air ; the dryness of the 

 atmosphere, however, was such, that the 

 ice in a short time evaporated, and gave 



