The ice on the lake was now nearly two feet thick.

After the 16th we had a succession of cold, snowy, and windy weather.

We had become anxious to hear of the arrival of Mr.Back and his party at Fort Providence.

The Indians, who had calculated the period at which a messenger ought to have returned from thence to be already passed, became impatient when it had elapsed and, with their usual love of evil augury, tormented us by their melancholy forebodings.

At one time they conjectured that the whole party had fallen through the ice; at another that they had been waylaid and cut off by the Dog-Ribs.