96 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



He was frozen within two hundred yards of the 

 Mission House, near to which were a number of log 

 houses, tenanted at the time by half-breeds and Indians, 

 When the body was found on the following morning, a 

 number of Indians set themselves to trace his steps from 

 the Ojibway camp across the ice, a difficult under- 

 taking, in consequence of the high wind which was 

 blowing at the time having, to an inexperienced eye 

 obliterated all traces of his steps. With astonishing 

 accuracy these wild men read the brief history of his 

 journey, and related the incidents to me as we stood on 

 the banks of Eed Lake, with the Ojibway village and the 

 course of the unfortunate missionary in view. " There," 

 said my dusky informant, pointing to the ice not more 

 than half a mile from the houses, " there he first turned 

 his back to the wind, and there he knelt to pray," the 

 Indian suiting the action to the word, and kneeling in the 

 attitude which the track showed the missionary had 

 assumed. Now he faced the wind and ran against the 

 blinding snow and pitiless storm ; here he turned his 

 back again ; there his tracks showed how he slipped and 

 fell, and once again where he knelt to pray. The marks 

 of his fingers were seen on the crust of snow lying in 

 frozen patches on the ice. Once more he fell, rose again, 

 knelt for a while, and made a last effort to push against 

 the storm. They came at length to where he had fallen for 

 the last time, and subsequently knelt with his hands on 

 the ice, his head touching the snow. He was found 

 with hands clasped in the attitude of prayer, his head 

 bent upon his breast. The barking dogs at the Mission 

 must have been aware that he was approaching, notwith- 

 standing the gloom of evening and the drifting snow, for 

 they bayed fiercely in the direction he was coming about 

 the time he was supposed to have fallen. The half-breeds 



