We had no tripe de roche that day but drank an infusion of the country tea-plant, which was grateful from its warmth although it afforded no sustenance.

We then retired to bed where we remained all the next day as the weather was stormy, and the snow-drift so heavy as to destroy every prospect of success in our endeavours to light a fire with the green and frozen willows which were our only fuel.

Through the extreme kindness and forethought of a lady the party, previous to leaving London, had been furnished with a small collection of religious books, of which we still retained two or three of the most portable, and they proved of incalculable benefit to us.

We read portions of them to each other as we lay in bed, in addition to the morning and evening service, and found that they inspired us on each perusal with so strong a sense of the omnipresence of a beneficent God that our situation even in these wilds appeared no longer destitute, and we conversed not only with calmness but with cheerfulness, detailing with unrestrained confidence the past events of our lives and dwelling with hope on our future prospects.

Had my poor friend been spared to revisit his native land I should look back to this period with unalloyed delight.
On the morning of the 9th the weather although still cold was clear, and I went out in quest of tripe de roche, leaving Hepburn to cut willows for a fire and Mr.Hood in bed.