They're a mean crowd, and often short of food, but if they've been lucky you might get supplies.

Now and then they put up a lot of dried fish and kill some caribou." He told Blake roughly where the Indian encampment lay; and after talking for a while they went to sleep.

The next morning the prospectors took the horses and started for the south, while Blake's party pushed on north with loads that severely tried their strength.
After a few days' laborious march they reached a stream and found a few Indians who were willing to take them some distance down it.

It was a relief to get rid of the heavy packs and rest while the canoe glided smoothly through the straggling forest, and the labor of hauling her across the numerous portages was light compared with the toil of the march.
Blake, however, had misgivings.

They were making swift progress northward; but it would be different when they came back.