FATHER LUCIEN'S ADVENTURE The snow was firm and the rivers were frozen hard when Thirlwell left the mine with two _Metis_ trappers to examine an outcropping reef that one of the half-breeds had told him about.

He was not very hopeful, but agreed with Scott, who thought it might be worth while to look at the reef, since the specimens the _Metis_ had brought showed traces of silver and lead.

Then Father Lucien had gone to visit some of his people who had camped for their winter trapping far up in the bush, the shack was lonely, and the frost hindered the work at the mine.
Winter is not a good time for prospecting, but travel is often easier then, for the hand-sledges run smoothly on the snow that covers fallen trunks and underbrush and levels the hollows.

The muskegs are frozen and one can make fast marches along the rivers and across the lakes.
Thirlwell had no tent, but it is not a great hardship for a well-fed man, wrapped in furs, to sleep beside a big fire behind a bank of snow, and he had no misadventures as he pushed into the wilds.

The ore proved to be worthless, and soon after he started back he met an Indian who said he had seen Father Lucien going south with a dog-team two days before, and had found the trail of another white man near the spot where he and his friends had camped.
The clear, cold weather broke when Thirlwell began his homeward march.
The sky was low and leaden, and a biting wind blew from the south.