grumbling from the voyagers of both Companies respecting the overlading of their dogs.  However we left the matter to be settled by our friends at the fort who were more conversant with winter travelling than ourselves.  Indeed the loads appeared to us so great that we should have been inclined to listen to the complaints of the drivers.  The weight usually placed upon a sledge drawn by three dogs cannot at the commencement of a journey be estimated at less than three hundred pounds, which however suffers a daily diminution from the consumption of provisions.  The sledge itself weighs about thirty pounds.  When the snow is hard frozen or the track well trodden the rate of travelling is about two miles and a half an hour, including rests, or about fifteen miles a day.  If the snow be loose the speed is necessarily much less and the fatigue greater.

At eight in the morning of the 18th we quitted the fort and took leave of our hospitable friend Governor Williams whose kindness and attention I shall ever remember with gratitude.  Dr. Richardson, Mr. Hood, and Mr. Connolly accompanied us along the Saskatchewan until the snow became too deep for their walking without snowshoes.  We then parted from our associates with sincere regret at the prospect of a long separation.  Being accompanied by Mr. Mackenzie of the Hudson’s Bay Company who was going to Isle a la Crosse with four sledges under his charge we formed quite a procession, keeping in an Indian file on the track of the man who preceded the foremost dogs; but as the snow was deep we proceeded slowly on the surface of the river, which is about three hundred and fifty yards wide, for the distance of six miles which we went this day.  Its alluvial banks and islands are clothed with willows.  At the place of our encampment we could scarcely find sufficient pine branches to floor the hut, as the Orkney men term the place where travellers rest.  Its preparation however consists only in clearing away the snow to the ground and covering that space with pine branches, over which the party spread their blankets and coats and sleep in warmth and comfort by keeping a good fire at their feet without any other canopy than the heaven, even though the thermometer should be far below zero.

The arrival at the place of encampment gives immediate occupation to every one of the party; and it is not until the sleeping-place has been arranged and a sufficiency of wood collected as fuel for the night that the fire is allowed to be kindled.  The dogs alone remain inactive during this busy scene, being kept harnessed to their burdens until the men have leisure to unstow the sledges and hang upon the trees every species of provision out of their reach.  We had ample experience before morning of the necessity of this precaution as they contrived to steal a considerable part of our stores almost from underneath Hepburn’s head, notwithstanding their having been well fed at supper.

This evening we found the mercury of our thermometer had sunk into the bulb and was frozen.  It rose again into the tube on being held to the fire but quickly redescended into the bulb on being removed into the air; we could not therefore ascertain by it the temperature of the atmosphere either then or during our journey.  The weather was perfectly clear.