Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/72

 best lodging we could for the night, there being another wide prairie on the opposite side. Notwithstanding every precaution, two of the men were injured by the cold; one a half-breed from Fort Pelly, who afterwards, at Carlton, lamented his inability to dance in consequence of his frozen heels. Neither bird nor beast was seen during the day; the intense cold haying driven all living things, but ourselves, to the shelter of the woods.

Next morning we made an early start, and crossed the plain, which is fourteen miles wide, before breakfast. A few willows were thinly scattered over its barren surface, and we had a view of the low range of the Touchwood Hills, extending from south to south-east. We could again discern the deeply-curved woods on our right; in fact, we were travelling from one distant point of them to another, as if traversing successive bays of the sea, to which these great plains, that on the left reach to the Rocky Mountains, may well be likened. "Lac aux Plumes," a very large salt lake, which derives its name from the multitude of wild fowl that moult there every summer, lies near this part of our route. We breakfasted in the Moose Woods, and I observed the lat. 52° 4' 16" N., variation 18° 4' 16" E. The cold continued to be dreadfully severe.