When we beheld them gnawing the pieces of hide and pounding the bones for the purpose of extracting some nourishment from them by boiling we regretted our inability to relieve them, but little thought that we should ourselves be afterwards driven to the necessity of eagerly collecting these same bones a second time from the dunghill.
At this time, to divert the attention of the men from their wants, we encouraged the practice of sliding down the steep bank of the river upon sledges.

These vehicles descended the snowy bank with much velocity and ran a great distance upon the ice.

The officers joined in the sport and the numerous overturns we experienced formed no small share of the amusement of the party, but on one occasion, when I had been thrown from my seat and almost buried in the snow, a fat Indian woman drove her sledge over me and sprained my knee severely.
On the 18th at eight in the evening a beautiful halo appeared round the sun when it was about 8 degrees high.

The colours were prismatic and very bright, the red next the sun.
On the 21st the ice in the river was measured and found to be five feet thick and, in setting the nets in Round Rock Lake, it was there ascertained to be six feet and a half thick, the water being six fathoms deep.

The stomachs of some fish were at this time opened by Dr.
Richardson and found filled with insects which appear to exist in abundance under the ice during the winter.
On the 22nd a moose-deer was killed at the distance of forty-five miles; St.Germain went for it with a dog-sledge and returned with unusual expedition on the morning of the third day.