SAGACITY OF THE DOGS. — A TRAVELER FROZEN TO DEATH. 91 



frozen and compactly made, that they had produced 

 little impression on the small mound of ice, but no doubt 

 time and perseverance would have enabled them to reach 

 the supplies beneath. 



Pine Eiver crossing is the spot from which Mr. Mac- 

 kenzie, who had so hospitably treated us at Fort Pem- 

 bina, started on the morning of the 29th December 1859, 

 on his ill-fated journey in search of assistance. He and 

 some companions were escorting an engineer from George 

 Town to Fort Garry, who was traveling thither to make 

 alterations and repairs in the steamer Anson Northrup, 

 then laid up for the winter near the Indian settlement. 

 The party fell short of provisions, and Mr. Mackenzie 

 pushed on in the hope of being able to send supplies from 

 Pembina. After leaving his companions, he appears to 

 have followed the trail for some distance, and at the ap- 

 proach of night to have lost his way. His beaten track 

 showed that in order to keep himself from freezing, he 

 had spent the night in running round in a circle. At the 

 break of day he started again across the trackless waste, 

 but in a direction considerably to the eastward of his 

 proper course. A second day of fruitless wandering was 

 followed by a night more dreary than the first. The 

 third day's journey brought him near to Roseau Lake, 

 far to the east of his destination ; here his strength ap- 

 pears to have failed him, for having hung some shreds 

 of his coat on a tree, to mark his last resting-place, he 

 lay down beneath it, where his frozen body was found, 

 with one hand on his heart and the other grasping a 

 compass.* 



On the day succeeding our camp near Pine Eiver, we 

 crossed a very bleak and desolate prairie about eight miles 



* An account of this melancholy journey is given in the Red River Nor'- 

 Wester, for January 14, 1860. 



