Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/316

286 feathers." The poor fellows' stock of tobacco was by this time entirely consumed, and it was amusing to witness the shifts and substitutes they employed. Swamp-tea, pepper, salt, cotton rags, and even oakum, were used to replenish their empty pipes. People voluntarily subject themselves to a species of slavery in acquiring such useless and disagreeable habits. Of all the individuals composing the expedition I was the only non-smoker; and, throughout the fur countries generally, the exceptions scarcely amount to one in a hundred. The tediousness of time, and the absence of the amusements and recreations common in other parts of the world, sufficiently account for the universal prevalence of a custom so general, even where no such palliation exists.

From the 9th to the 19th of August—a long and fatal delay—we experienced an almost uninterrupted succession of violent gales from the north and west, beating directly upon the shore, accompanied by severe frost, with frequent falls of rain and snow. We remained miserable prisoners in the same ill-omened spot, scarcely able to collect, from a couple of miles on either side, drift wood enough to cook our two daily meals of pemican. Reindeer had become scarce; but ducks and geese passed in large flights to the