Our new attendants showed us the greatest attention, and indeed were extremely proud of serving the Soniow Okey Mow, and the Muskeeky Okey Mow, as they had named us, which, being interpreted, signifies the “Great Golden Chief,” and “My Master, the Great Medicine.” And we found constant amusement over our camp-fire at night in teaching them English words, and learning Cree. The circumstance that there were some words which were almost identical in the two languages--words which had been adopted from one language into the other--struck them as very ludicrous, and they never tired of laughing over _pemmicàrn_, “pemmican;” _mùskisin_, “moccasin;” _shùgow_, “sugar;” and the like. And when we used wrong words for others very similar, as we frequently did purposely--calling the old man Kekekooarsis, Kekwaharkosis, or the “Little Wolverine;” or an Indian named Gaytchi Mohkamarn, or “The Big Knife,” Matchi Mohkamarn, “The Evil Knife”--the joke was always irresistible, and they rolled about and held their sides in fits of laughter. On the fourth day after leaving La Belle Prairie, we reached the camping ground, where we expected to meet Indians, but found the camp broken up, and saw by the tracks that the party had dispersed in various directions. We therefore kept on in a straight line for the prairie. The weather had become colder and colder, and as we passed over a large lake just before dark, the wind blew so keenly that our faces ached again, and our teeth chattered, although we hurried over it into a little wood as rapidly as the dogs could go. Milton’s nose and cheeks were frost-bitten, and required careful rubbing to restore them. On the morrow, by the Hunter’s advice, we stayed in camp, while he went out alone to reconnoitre, and try and kill a buffalo. Our provisions were by this time reduced to a few handfuls of flour, and a little pemmican--hardly more than sufficient for that day’s consumption. We had started with a fair supply of white-fish and pemmican; but six dogs rapidly reduced it. Two fish a day, or three pounds of pemmican, is the regular allowance for a sleigh-dog when travelling; and the quantity required to satisfy a man in the cold winter is greater still. We therefore spent an anxious day, waiting for Keenamontiayoo’s return, wondering whether he would be successful in obtaining meat. We put ourselves upon short commons, and the dogs upon still shorter, and even went to the length of fixing upon one useless, toothless old fellow as a victim to our appetites, in case of extremity.