136

1792.
December.

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JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE THROUGH THE

fure the hardfhips which they undergo without a murmur, in order to

convey a general notion of them.

The men who were now with me, left this place in the beginning of
laft May, and went to the Rainy Lake in canoes, laden with packs of
fur, which, from the immenfe length of the voyage, and other con-
curring circumftances, is a moft fevere trial of patience and perfeverance:
there they do not remain a fufficient time for ordinary repofe, when
they take a load of goods in exchange, and proceed on their return,
in a great meafure, day and night. They had been arrived near two
months, and, all that time, had been continually engaged in very toilfome
labour, with nothing more than a common fhed to proteét them from
the froft and fnow. Such is the life which thefe people lead; and is
continued with unremitting exertion, till their {trength is loft in prema-
ture old age.

The Canadians remarked, that the weather we had on the 2 5th, 26th,
and 27th of this month, denoted fuch as we might expeét in the three
fucceeding months. On the goth, the wind being at North-Eaft, and the
weather calm and cloudy, a rumbling noife was heard in the air like dif.
tant thunder, when the fky cleared away in the South-Weft; from
whence there blew a perfeét hurricane, which lafted- till eight.
Soon after it commenced, the atmofphere became fo warm that it
diffolyed all the fnow on the ground; even the ice was covered: with
water, and had the fame appearance as when it is breaking up: in
the {pring. From eight to nine the weather became calm, but imme-.
diately after a. wind, arofe, from. the) North-Eaft with equal violence,

with

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