Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/59

 Suffice it to remark, that, throughout the journey northward, I took bearings with a pocket compass; and, at night, determined our situation by altitudes of the planets or fixed stars.

The Manitobah Lake had but recently assumed its icy covering, which, as far as the eye could distinguish, rose in huge masses, as if forbidding all farther progress. So formidable was its appearance that the people endeavoured to dissuade me from prosecuting that route; but I resolved to persevere, and, dismissing our wheeled vehicles, we soon had our baggage snugly stowed upon the sledges. The cariole intended for myself I appropriated to the carriage of my books, instruments, &c., and preferred performing the whole journey to Athabasca on foot. Two of the young freemen agreed to afford us the assistance of their dogs to the Company's nearest post; and, at each establishment on the route, I, in like manner, procured the aid of a couple of fresh men to accompany us to the next. Then began the flourishing of whips, the shouts of the drivers, and the howling of the refractory dogs—all blending together in one horrible outcry. For some distance we found the ice almost impracticable, but on doubling a point the broken rugged masses gave place to a smooth and glassy level. To walk on such a surface, with the moccassins or