OF THE POLAR SEA. 



441 



given him some warm soup. My companions nursed him with the 

 greatest kindness, and the desire of restoring him to health seemed 

 to absorb all regard for their own situation. I witnessed with 

 peculiar pleasure this conduct, so different from that which they 

 had recently pursued, when every tender feeling was suspended by 

 the desire of self-preservation. They now no longer betrayed im- 

 patience or despondency, but were composed and cheerful, and 

 had entirely given up the practice of swearing, to which the Ca- 

 nadian voyagers are so lamentably addicted. Our conversation 

 naturally turned upon the prospect of getting relief, and upon 

 the means which were best adapted for obtaining it. The absence 

 of all traces of Indians on Winter Eiver, convinced me that they 

 were at this time on the way to Fort Providence, and that by 

 proceeding towards that post we should overtake them, as they 

 move slowly when they have their families with them. This route 

 also offered us the prospect of killing deer, in the vicinity of Rein- 

 deer Lake, in which neighbourhood, our men in their journeys to 

 and fro last winter, had always found them abundant. Upon these 

 grounds I determined on taking the route to Fort Providence as 

 soon as possible, and wrote to Mr. Back desiring him to join me at 

 Rein-deer Lake, and detailing the occurrences since we had parted, 

 that our friends might receive relief, in case of any accident hap- 

 pening to me. 



Belanger did not recover sufficient strength to leave us before the 

 18th. His answers as to the exact part of Round-Rock Lake in 

 which he had left Mr. Back, were very unsatisfactory ; and we could 

 only collect that it was at a considerable distance, and he was still 

 going on with the intention of halting at the place where Akaitcho 

 was encamped last summer, about thirty miles off. This distance 

 appeared so great, that I told Belanger it was very unsafe for him to 

 attempt it alone, and that he would be several days in accomplishing 

 it. He stated, however, that as the track was beaten, he should 



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