After a fatiguing march of seventeen miles we put up at the upper Nippeween, a deserted establishment; and performed the comfortable operations of shaving and washing for the first time since our departure from Cumberland, the weather having been hitherto too severe.

We passed an uncomfortable and sleepless night, and agreed next morning to encamp in future, in the open air, as preferable to the imperfect shelter of a deserted house without doors or windows.
The morning was extremely cold, but fortunately the wind was light, which prevented our feeling it severely; experience indeed had taught us that the sensation of cold depends less upon the state of temperature, than the force of the wind.

An attempt was made to obtain the latitude, which failed, in consequence of the screw, that adjusts the telescope of the sextant, being immoveably fixed, from the moisture upon it having frozen.

The instrument could not be replaced in its case before the ice was thawed by the fire in the evening.
In the course of the day we passed the confluence of the south branch of the Saskatchawan, which rises from the Rocky Mountains near the sources of the northern branch of the Missouri.

At Coles Falls, which commence a short distance from the branch, we found the surface of the ice very uneven, and many spots of open water.
We passed the ruins of an establishment, which the traders had been compelled to abandon, in consequence of the intractable{25} conduct and pilfering habits of the Assineboine{26} or Stone Indians; and we learned that all the residents at a post on the south branch, had been cut off{27} by the same tribe some years ago.