Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/282

252 would serve them than to crawl under the blankets and huddle beside me. They were coaxing little creatures, and, having prodigious appetites, I found no difficulty in inducing them to change their diet.

On the 17th the ground was hard frozen; but, the wind decreasing in the afternoon, we carried forward our baggage to the Dismal Lakes, where the ice lay as solid as in mid-winter, and the hills glistened with snow. A branch of the Copper Mountains stretches along the northern side of these lakes, out of view, except at the lower part near Kendall River, where the natives report having found large masses of metal. Some metalliferous stones were picked up here, but we had no leisure to prosecute our researches farther.

At 4 o'clock next morning, having fixed the boats firmly upon stout iron-shod sledges brought with us for the purpose, and placed in them the oars and baggage, we hoisted the sails to a fair wind, and, placing the crews at the drag-ropes, set out at the rate of two knots an hour over the ice, colours flying. This extraordinary spectacle will long be a subject of tradition among the natives. The snow still adhering to the surface of the lake much impeded our progress, but could not damp the ardour which our strange