The 30th was intensely cold, with a penetrating head wind, and not an incident occurred to vary the scene as we passed down the long monotonous reaches of the river.
The cold during the succeeding night was excessive. At the end of sixteen miles we made a land-cut of two miles in length to avoid a détour. The wolves having become very daring, lured on by the prints of the dogs' bleeding feet, I lay in wait for them, after the rest of the party had passed, and fired upon the foremost as they dashed up the bank, which effectually checked the pursuit. We encamped at the mouth of a small creek, thirty miles from Fort Chipewyan.
1st February.—This being the day I had fixed, on leaving Red River, for my arrival at Fort Chipewyan, we were on the move at 2 a. m. The morning was windy, but not cold; the sky was clear, and a vivid arch of the aurora spanned it to the north, but speedily resolved itself into a thousand flashes and coruscations of extreme brilliancy. Leaving the main channel by which the Athabasca pours its waters into the lake, we struck across the land to a minor branch, called the Embarras. We followed its narrow and devious course for several miles, rousing the moose-deer from their lairs
