29th.--When we started at half-past 9 P.M., the night was fine, but in
half an hour it began to snow so thick that we could not keep our course
in crossing Garry Bay, where the walking was much worse than when we
formerly passed. In three hours the weather again cleared up, and I
found that we had not deviated much from the right road.
At 7 A.M. we joined Folster and Mineau, whom we found quite well, but
like ourselves very thin. The only animals they had killed were two
marmots, and no fish had been caught. If we had been twelve hours longer
absent, they intended to have boiled a piece of parchment skin for
supper, and to have kept the small remaining piece of pemmican for
travelling provisions.
I have had considerable practice in walking, and have often accomplished
between forty and fifty, and, on one occasion, sixty-five miles in a day
on snow shoes, with a day's provisions, blanket, axe, &c. on my back;
but our journey hitherto had been the most fatiguing I had ever
experienced. The severe exercise, with a limited allowance of food, had
much reduced the whole party, yet we were all in excellent health; and
although we lost flesh, we kept up our spirits, and marched merrily on,
tightening our belts--mine came in six inches--and feasting our
imaginations on full allowance when we arrived at Fort Hope.
On the 30th we continued our course homewards, crossing over the several
points that we had formerly coasted. It snowed heavily all night, and
the temperature was only two degrees below the freezing point. Eight
cranes "winged their circling flight" northward, and half a dozen
sandpipers were seen. It was near 4 A.M. on the 31st when we arrived at
our snow house of the 23rd, which we found quite as good as when we left
it and our cache of venison all safe. Three partridges were shot, which
somewhat aided our short commons.
On the following night, after an ineffectual attempt to get to seaward
of the rough ice, in which we lost a considerable portion of the skin
off our shins, we travelled on the land, making short cuts whenever
practicable.
On arriving opposite to Glen Island, we found that it was divided from
the shore by a channel not much more than a quarter of a mile wide.
There was an inlet a few miles in length to the eastward of it, which
was named after the Rev. Mr. Mackar of Kingston, Canada West. This night
was the finest we had experienced throughout the journey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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