We obtained observations for the dip of the needle and intensity of the magnetic force in a spare room.  The dip was 83 degrees 9 minutes 45 seconds and the difference produced by reversing the face of the instrument 13 degrees 3 minutes 6 seconds.  When the needle was faced to the west it hung nearly perpendicular.  The Aurora Borealis had been faintly visible for a short time the preceding evening.  Some Indians arrived in search of provision having been totally incapacitated from hunting by sickness; the poor creatures looked miserably ill and they represented their distress to have been extreme.  Few recitals are more affecting than those of their sufferings during unfavourable seasons and in bad situations for hunting and fishing.  Many assurances have been given me that men and women are yet living who have been reduced to feed upon the bodies of their own family to prevent actual starvation; and a shocking case was cited to us of a woman who had been principal agent in the destruction of several persons, and amongst the number her husband and nearest relatives, in order to support life.

November 28.

The atmosphere had been clear every day during the last week, about the end of which snow fell, when the thermometer rose from 20 degrees below to 16 degrees above zero.  The Aurora Borealis was twice visible but faint on both occasions.  Its appearance did not affect the electrometer nor could we perceive the compass to be disturbed.

The men brought supplies of moose meat from the hunter’s tent which is pitched near the Basquiau Hill, forty or fifty miles from the house and whence the greatest part of the meat is procured.  The residents have to send nearly the same distance for their fish and on this service horse-sledges are used.  Nets are daily set in Pine Island Lake which occasionally procure some fine sturgeon, tittameg and trout, but not more than sufficient to supply the officers’ table.

December 1.

This day was so remarkably fine that we procured another set of observations for the dip of the needle in the open air; the instrument being placed firmly on a rock the results gave 83 degrees 14 minutes 22 seconds.  The change produced by reversing the face of the instrument was 12 degrees 50 minutes 55 seconds.

There had been a determined thaw during the last three days.  The ice on the Saskatchewan River and some parts of the lake broke up and the travelling across either became dangerous.  On this account the absence of Wilks, one of our men, caused no small anxiety.  He had incautiously undertaken the conduct of a sledge and dogs in company with a person going to Swampy River for fish.  On their return, being unaccustomed to driving, he became fatigued and seated himself on his sledge where his companion left him, presuming that he would soon rise and hasten to follow his track.  He however returned safe in the morning and reported that, foreseeing night would set in before he could get across the lake, he prudently retired into the woods before dark where he remained until daylight, when the men who had been despatched to look for him met him returning to the house, shivering with cold, he having been unprovided with the materials for lighting a fire, which an experienced voyager never neglects to carry.