and ice-cakes, and the danger was too imminent to think about. A clearer part of the river was soon reached in safety, the drift always running most thickly in the strongest current. Paddling up stream a mile or two, the severity of the rain induced us to camp on an island, where we pitched our tent in a willow grove, and endeavored to dry ourselves. The evening meal consisted of salted white-fish and tea. We now discovered that Scratchett had availed himself of the confusion of our starting to appropriate sundry spoons, and other articles of use and necessity, to his own advantage. Although of iron, the loss was as great as if they had been of gold; for who can eat bread and tea without a spoon? We had just two left, and our Indians must take turn and turn about in using them. Another loss which we all regretted was three pounds of sugar, which I had purchased with a shirt, of the individual above mentioned. It is to be hoped that he has duly repented in his subsequent retirement.

Several canoes had followed us through the ice in fear and trembling. Their inmates, camped near us, presented a melancholy spectacle. A woman whose long upper garment consisted of white cotton, with her hair streaming down her back, resembled a drowned rabbit; and an old man seemed to have received a more thorough washing than for many years previous. We were all very wet, but our clothing repelled the rain much better than deerskins or cotton drill.

Blessed be the man who invented rubber blankets! Mine, after a season in the Lake Superior region, did noble service, as well as Whymper's, which he had obtained in British Columbia. Laying them down on the mud in which our camp was situated, only covered by a little willow brush, we spread out our blankets, and were soon at rest. The Indians, except Kurilla, who, as coxswain, slept in our tent, made their tent out of a great sheet of drill, after their own fashion. Bending down the tops of several slender willows, they crossed them in different directions, and spreading the covering over that, the whole was nearly circular. It was always a marvel to me how they could lie down in it, it was so small. After all got inside, the edges were carefully tucked in and the mosquitoes effectually excluded.

The rain prevented the latter from being very troublesome, and we slept comfortably.