With two carioles and two sledges: their drivers and dogs were furnished in equal proportions by the two trading Companies[1]. Fifteen days’ provisions so completely filled the sledges, that it was with difficulty we found room for a small sextant, one suit of clothes, and three changes of linen, together with our bedding. Notwithstanding we thus restricted ourselves, and even loaded the carioles with part of the baggage, instead of going in them ourselves, we did not set out without considerable grumbling from the drivers, respecting the overloading of their dogs. The weight usually placed upon a sledge, drawn by three dogs, cannot, at the commencement of a journey, be estimated at less than three hundred pounds, which, however, suffers a daily diminution from the consumption of provisions. The sledge itself weighs about thirty pounds. When the snow is hard frozen, or the track well trodden, the rate of travelling is about fifteen miles a day. If the snow is loose, the speed is necessarily much less, and the fatigue greater.
“At eight in the morning of the 18th Jan. 1820, we took leave of our hospitable friend. Governor Williams, whose kindness and attention I shall ever remember with gratitude. Dr. Richardson, Mr. Hood, and Mr. Connelly (the resident partner of the N.W. Company), accompanied us along the Saskatchawan until the snow became too deep for their walking without snow-shoes. We then parted from our associates, with sincere regret at the prospect of a long separation. Being accompanied by Mr. Mackenzie, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who was going to Isle à la Crosse, with four sledges under his charge, we formed quite a procession, keeping in an Indian file, in the track of the man who preceded the foremost dogs; but, as the snow was deep, we proceeded slowly on the surface of the river. At the place of our encampment we could scarcely find sufficient pine branches to floor ‘the hut,’ as the Orkneymen term the spot where travellers rest. Its preparation, however, consists only in clearing away the snow to the ground, and covering that space with pine branches, over which the party spread their blankets and coats, and sleep in warmth and comfort, by keeping a good fire at their feet, without any other canopy than the heaven, even though the thermometer should be far below zero.
“The arrival at the place of encampment gives immediate occupation to every one of the party; and it is not until the sleeping place has been arranged, and a sufficiency of wood collected as fuel for the night, that the fire is allowed to be kindled. The dogs alone remain inactive during this busy scene, being kept harnessed to their burdens until the men have leisure to unstow the sledges, and hang upon the trees every species of- ↑ The cariole is merely a covering of leather for the lower part of the body, affixed to the common sledge, and painted and ornamented according to the taste of the proprietor.
