On my return to the house I found Samandre very dispirited and too weak, as he said, to render any assistance to Peltier, upon whom the whole labour of getting wood and collecting the means of subsistence would have devolved.  Conscious too that his strength would have been unequal to these tasks they had determined upon taking only one meal each day, so that I felt my going back particularly fortunate as I hoped to stimulate Samandre to exertion and at any rate could contribute some help to Peltier.  I undertook the office of cooking and insisted they should eat twice a day whenever food could be procured but, as I was too weak to pound the bones, Peltier agreed to do that in addition to his more fatiguing task of getting wood.  We had a violent snow-storm all the next day and this gloomy weather increased the depression of spirits under which Adam and Samandre were labouring.  Neither of them would quit their beds and they scarcely ceased from shedding tears all day; in vain did Peltier and myself endeavour to cheer them.  We had even to use much entreaty before they would take the meals we had prepared for them.  Our situation was indeed distressing but in comparison with that of our friends in the rear we thought it happy.  Their condition gave us unceasing solicitude and was the principal subject of our conversation.

Though the weather was stormy on the 26th Samandre assisted me to gather tripe de roche.  Adam, who was very ill and could not now be prevailed upon to eat this weed, subsisted principally on bones, though he also partook of the soup.  The tripe de roche had hitherto afforded us our chief support, and we naturally felt great uneasiness at the prospect of being deprived of it by its being so frozen as to render it impossible for us to gather it.

We perceived our strength decline every day and every exertion began to be irksome; when we were once seated the greatest effort was necessary in order to rise, and we had frequently to lift each other from our seats, but even in this pitiable condition we conversed cheerfully, being sanguine as to the speedy arrival of the Indians.  We calculated indeed that if they should be near the situation where they had remained last winter our men would have reached them by this day.  Having expended all the wood which we could procure from our present dwelling, without danger of its fall, Peltier began this day to pull down the partitions of the adjoining houses.  Though these were only distant about twenty yards yet the increase of labour in carrying the wood fatigued him so much that by the evening he was exhausted.  On the next day his weakness was such, especially in the arms of which he chiefly complained, that he with difficulty lifted the hatchet; still he persevered whilst Samandre and I assisted him in bringing in the wood, but our united strength could only collect sufficient to replenish the fire four times in the course of the day.  As the insides of our mouths had become sore from eating the bone-soup we relinquished the use of it and now boiled the skin, which mode of dressing we found more palatable than frying it, as we had hitherto done.