Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/126

 in the best situation he could discover, and to keep our Chipewyan hunters and the native Indians employed in collecting the meat of the reindeer and musk-ox against our return from the coast. From the trading goods we selected such articles as we considered most suitable for presents to the Esquimaux; the rest, together with a small surplus of provisions, was to be deposited at our new establishment. The stock of provisions appropriated to our coasting voyage, and the long retreat from the mouth of the Mackenzie to winter quarters, was thirty bags of pemican, each weighing ninety pounds, and ten hundred-weight of Red River flour. This was an ample allowance for the whole season of open water; and we found that the union of flour with the pemican produced a saving of one-third in the consumption. Three pounds of pemican alone form a man's daily ration; but, though the food is highly nourishing, it soon becomes distasteful and cloying. With the flour it makes an excellent, and not unpalatable, soup, or rather "bergoo," which formed our own sustenance, as well as the men's, and was relished by all. These victuals were used by the crews without any restriction; and it was ascertained, at the end of the voyage, that the average daily consumption had been exactly two pounds per man. Our crews for