on another two gallons of chocolate and water.  For five days the chocolate kept them going, though more by faith than by any actual nourishment that it imparted.  They now began to be surrounded by large herds of wolves, who seemed to be conscious of their dire extremity and the probability that they would soon fall an easy prey, yet were cunning enough to keep out of gunshot.  At last, however, at sunset on the fifth day, they discovered on the ice the remains of an elk’s carcass on which the wolves had left a little flesh.  From these elk bones a meal of strong and excellent soup was soon prepared, and the men’s bodies thrilled with new life.

[Footnote 14:  Chocolate from St. Domingue (Haiti) was a favourite form of portable nutriment among the French Canadians, who also provided a means of subsistence for long journeys called praline.  This was made of roasted Indian corn on which sugar had been sprinkled.  It was a most nourishing food, as well as being an agreeable sweet-meat.]

“Want had lost his dominion over us.  At noon we saw the horns of a red deer, standing in the snow, on the river.  On examination we found that the whole carcass was with them, the animal having broken through the ice in the beginning of the winter, in attempting to cross the river, too early in the season; while his horns, fastening themselves in the ice, had prevented him from sinking.  By cutting away the ice we were enabled to lay bare a part of the back and shoulders, and thus procure a stock of food amply sufficient for the rest of our journey.  We accordingly encamped, and employed our kettle to good purpose, forgot all our misfortunes, and prepared to walk with cheerfulness the twenty leagues which, as we reckoned, still lay between ourselves and Fort des Prairies.  Though the deer must have been in this situation ever since the month of November, yet its flesh was perfectly good.  Its horns alone were five feet high or more, and it will therefore not appear extraordinary that they should be seen above the snow.”

The next day they reached the Fort des Prairies, established by the Hudson’s Bay people, on the verge of the Assiniboin country.  The journey was resumed in company with Messrs. Patterson and Holmes, and accompanied by a band of natives.  They had entered the bison country, and were regaled by the Indians with bison tongue and beef.

“Soon after sunrise we descried a herd of oxen (bison) extending a mile and a half in length, and too numerous to be counted.  They travelled, not one after another, as, in the snow, other animals usually do, but, in a broad phalanx, slowly, and sometimes stopping to feed....  Their numbers were so great that we dreaded lest they should fairly trample down the camp; nor could it have happened otherwise, but for the dogs, almost as numerous as they, who were able to keep them in check.  The Indians killed several when close upon their tents, but neither the fire of the Indians nor the noise of the dogs could soon drive them away.”  The poor animals were more frightened of the frightful snowstorm which was raging than of what man or dog might do to them in the shelter of the woods.