This scheme appearing practicable, a party was sent to our encampment of the 24th and 25th last to collect pitch amongst the small pines that grew there to pay over the seams of the canoe.
In the afternoon we had a heavy fall of snow which continued all night.

A small quantity of tripe de roche was gathered and Credit, who had been hunting, brought in the antlers and back bone of a deer which had been killed in the summer.

The wolves and birds of prey had picked them clean but there still remained a quantity of the spinal marrow which they had not been able to extract.

This, although putrid, was esteemed a valuable prize and the spine being divided into portions was distributed equally.
After eating the marrow, which was so acrid as to excoriate the lips, we rendered the bones friable by burning and ate them also.
On the following morning the ground was covered with snow to the depth of a foot and a half and the weather was very stormy.

These circumstances rendered the men again extremely despondent; a settled gloom hung over their countenances and they refused to pick tripe de roche, choosing rather to go entirely without eating than to make any exertion.