460 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



walked about two miles. The sight of a place that we knew 

 inspired us with fresh vigour, and there being comparatively little 

 snow on the ice, we advanced at a pace to which we had lately been 

 unaccustomed. In the afternoon we crossed a recent track of a 

 wolverene, which, from a parallel mark in the snow, appeared to have 

 been dragging something. Hepburn traced it, and upon the borders 

 of the lake found the spine of a deer, that it had dropped. It 

 was clean picked, and, at least, one season old; but we extracted 

 the spinal marrow from it, which, even in its frozen state, was so 

 acrid as to excoriate the lips. We encamped within sight of the 

 Dog-rib Rock, and from the coldness of the night and the want of 

 fuel, rested very ill. 



On the 28th we rose at day-break, but from the want of the 

 small fire, that we usually made in the mornings to warm our 

 fingers, a very long time was spent in making up our bundles. 

 This task fell to Hepburn's share, as I suffered so much from the 

 cold as to be unable to take my hands out of my mittens. We kept 

 a straight course for the Dog-rib Rock, but, owing to the depth of 

 the snow in the valleys we had to cross, did not reach it until late 

 in the afternoon. We would have encamped, but did not like to 

 pass a second night without fire ; and though scarcely able to drag 

 our limbs after us, we pushed on to a clump of pines, about a 

 mile to the southward of the rock, and arrived at them in the dusk 

 of the evening. During the last few hundred yards of our march, 

 our track lay over some large stones, amongst which I fell down 

 upwards of twenty times, and became at length so exhausted that 

 I was unable to stand. If Hepburn had not exerted himself far 

 beyond his strength, and speedily made the encampment and kindled 

 a fire, I must have perished on the spot. This night we had plenty 

 of dry wood. 



On the 29th we had clear and fine weather. We set out at sun- 

 rise, and hurried on in our anxiety to reach the house, but our pro- 



