Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/353

Rh reindeer were to be found. The only persons who actually perished during this miserable winter were an elderly woman and a new-born child, which the starving mother cast away. Far be it from us, however, to arrogate any merit for our exertions in preserving the lives of our fellow-creatures. It is a duty conscientiously fulfilled by every officer in the service when the occasion arrives, and was this very winter performed with equal effect by our next neighbour, Chief Trader M'Pherson of Mackenzie River.

The cause which leads to the occasional abandonment of the old and decrepit in the northern districts has never been thoroughly explained. When a party determine upon proceeding to some distant hunting-ground, they usually leave the refuse of the camp at some known fishery, where they can easily subsist during the absence of the active and the robust. The old folks, however, who are in general noted as grumblers and haters of fish diet, are not always satisfied with this arrangement; and, in spite of  Y 2