This Operation Was Accordingly Commenced And By
The 31st, Both The Canoes Being Finished, We Prepared For Our Departure
On The Following Day.
The leather which had been preserved for making shoes was equally divided
among the men, two pairs of flannel socks were given to each person, and
such articles of warm clothing as remained were issued to those who most
required them.
They were also furnished with one of the officers' tents.
This being done I communicated to the men my intention of proceeding in
as direct a course as possible to the part of Point Lake opposite our
spring encampment, which was only distant one hundred and forty-nine
miles in a straight line. They received the communication cheerfully,
considered the journey to be short, and left me in high spirits to
arrange their own packages. The stores, books, etc., which were not
absolutely necessary to be carried were then put up in boxes to be left
en cache here, in order that the men's burdens might be as light as
possible.
The next morning was warm and very fine. Everyone was on the alert at an
early hour, being anxious to commence the journey. Our luggage consisted
of ammunition, nets, hatchets, ice chisels, astronomical instruments,
clothing, blankets, three kettles, and the two canoes, which were each
carried by one man. The officers carried such a portion of their own
things as their strength would permit; the weight carried by each man was
about ninety pounds, and with this we advanced at the rate of about a
mile an hour including rests. In the evening the hunters killed a lean
cow out of a large drove of musk-oxen; but the men were too much laden to
carry more than a small portion of its flesh. The alluvial soil which,
towards the mouth of the river, spreads into plains covered with grass
and willows, was now giving place to a more barren and hilly country, so
that we could but just collect sufficient brushwood to cook our suppers.
The part of the river we skirted this day was shallow and flowed over a
bed of sand, its width about one hundred and twenty yards. About midnight
our tent was blown down by a squall and we were completely drenched with
rain before it could be repitched.
On the morning of the 1st of September a fall of snow took place; the
canoes became a cause of delay from the difficulty of carrying them in a
high wind, and they sustained much damage through the falls of those who
had charge of them. The face of the country was broken by hills of
moderate elevation but the ground was plentifully strewed with small
stones which, to men bearing heavy burdens and whose feet were protected
only by soft moose-skin shoes, occasioned great pain. At the end of
eleven miles we encamped and sent for a musk-ox and a deer which St.
Germain and Augustus had killed.
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