too great to carry it on; we therefore cut it up and took a part of the canvas for a cover.  The night was bitterly cold and though we lay as close to each other as possible, having no shelter, we could not keep ourselves sufficiently warm to sleep.  A strong gale came on after midnight which increased the severity of the weather.  In the morning Belanger and Michel renewed their request to be permitted to go back to the tent, assuring me they were still weaker than on the preceding evening and less capable of going forward, and they urged that the stopping at a place where there was a supply of tripe de roche was their only chance of preserving life; under these circumstances I could not do otherwise than yield to their desire.  I wrote a note to Dr. Richardson and Mr. Hood informing them of the pines we had passed and recommending their removing thither.  Having found that Michel was carrying a considerable quantity of ammunition I desired him to divide it among my party, leaving him only ten balls and a little shot to kill any animals he might meet on his way to the tent.  This man was very particular in his inquiries respecting the direction of the house and the course we meant to pursue; he also said that if he should be able he would go and search for Vaillant and Credit; and he requested my permission to take Vaillant’s blanket if he should find it, to which I agreed and mentioned it in my notes to the officers.

Scarcely were these arrangements finished before Perrault and Fontano were seized with a fit of dizziness and betrayed other symptoms of extreme debility.  Some tea was quickly prepared for them and after drinking it and eating a few morsels of burnt leather they recovered and expressed their desire to go forward, but the other men, alarmed at what they had just witnessed, became doubtful of their own strength and, giving way to absolute dejection, declared their inability to move.  I now earnestly pressed upon them the necessity of continuing our journey as the only means of saving their own lives as well as those of our friends at the tent, and after much entreaty got them to set out at ten A.M.  Belanger and Michel were left at the encampment and proposed to start shortly afterwards.  By the time we had gone about two hundred yards Perrault became again dizzy and desired us to halt which we did until he, recovering, offered to march on.  Ten minutes more had hardly elapsed before he again desired us to stop and, bursting into tears, declared he was totally exhausted and unable to accompany us farther.  As the encampment was not more than a quarter of a mile distant we recommended that he should return to it and rejoin Belanger and Michel whom we knew to be still there from perceiving the smoke of a fresh fire, and because they had not made any preparation for starting when we quitted them.  He readily acquiesced in the proposition and, having taken a friendly leave of each of us, and enjoined us to make all the haste we could in sending relief,