Page:Across the sub-Arctics of Canada (1897).djvu/203

 we were glad to find that the wind had fallen sufficiently to allow us to launch. Without delay the canoes were loaded and a fair run made. Several sea-ducks were shot during the day, and thus supper was secured.

The next day, again storm-bound by a gale from the south-west, the whole party started out to hunt for food. We were not altogether unsuccessful, assembling in the evening with five marmots (little animals about the size of squirrels).

The following morning, though a strong breeze was blowing, we determined to make a start, for to remain where we were meant that we must soon starve to death. We were already much reduced and weakened from the effects of cold and hunger, and the condition of the weather had of late been most disheartening. Churchill, the nearest habitation of man, was still fully three hundred miles distant. We had not one bite of food. The country was covered with snow, the climate piercingly cold. No fuel was to be had, and worst of all, the weather was such, the greater part of the time, that we were unable to travel. It was difficult to be cheerful under such circumstances, but we kept up courage and pushed on.

While we were bending to our paddles, after making perhaps seven or eight miles south-westerly along the coast, a band of deer was seen upon the shore. Our course was quickly altered and a landing effected, though with some difficulty, as the tide was falling and the water rapidly receding. The men were left to keep the canoes afloat while my brother and I, with our rifles, went in pursuit of the deer, which were at this time much more difficult to hunt than earlier in the season, when they run in great herds. The country