On the 22nd a moose-deer was killed at the distance of forty-five miles; St. Germain went for it with a dog-sledge and returned with unusual expedition on the morning of the third day.  This supply was soon exhausted and we passed the 27th without eating, with the prospect of fasting a day or two longer, when old Keskarrah entered with the unexpected intelligence of having killed a deer.  It was divided betwixt our own family and the Indians and during the night a seasonable supply arrived from Akaitcho.  Augustus returned with the men who brought it, much pleased with the attention he had received from the Indians during his visit to Akaitcho.

Next day Mr. Wentzel set out with every man that we could spare from the fort for the purpose of bringing meat from the Indians as fast as it could be procured.  Dr. Richardson followed them two days afterwards to collect specimens of the rocks in that part of the country.  On the same day the two Belangers arrived from Fort Providence having been only five days on the march from thence.

The highest temperature in April was plus 40 degrees, the lowest minus 32 degrees, the mean plus 4.6 degrees.  The temperature of the rapid, examined on the 30th by Messrs. Back and Hood, was 32 degrees at the surface, 33 degrees at the bottom.

On the 7th of May Dr. Richardson returned.  He informed me that the reindeer were again advancing to the northward but that the leader had been joined by several families of old people and that the daily consumption of provision at the Indian tents was consequently great.  This information excited apprehensions of being very scantily provided when the period of our departure should arrive.

The weather in the beginning of May was fine and warm.  On the 2nd some patches of sandy ground near the house were cleared of snow.  On the 7th the sides of the hills began to appear bare and on the 8th a large house-fly was seen.  This interesting event spread cheerfulness through our residence and formed a topic of conversation for the rest of the day.

On the 9th the approach of spring was still more agreeably confirmed by the appearance of a merganser and two gulls, and some loons or arctic divers, at the rapid.  This day to reduce the labour of dragging meat to the house the women and children and all the men except four were sent to live at the Indian tents.

The blueberries, crow-berries, eye-berries, and cranberries, which had been covered and protected by the snow during the winter might at this time be gathered in abundance and proved indeed a valuable resource.  The ground continued frozen but the heat of the sun had a visible effect on vegetation; the sap thawed in the pine-trees and Dr. Richardson informed me that the mosses were beginning to shoot and the calyptrae of some of the jungermanniae already visible.