He was, therefore, best
able to guide his companions. He thus describes the plan on which he
proceeded:--'Maurice, the Indian, would open his eyes now and then to
look at my compass;--we could not see for fog more than one hundred
yards; he would fix on some object as far as the eye could reach, and
then shut his eyes again, when I would lead him up to it. On reaching it
he would take another look, and we then started for the next point. It
was literally a case of the blind leading the blind.
"In this manner, by forced marches, we were enabled to reach, by seven
or eight in the evening, the same spots at which we had halted on our
outward march at four each day. Thus we were spared the labour of
digging and clearing away the snow, to which, in our enfeebled
condition, we were quite unequal. The stint of food was now so small
that I advised my companions not to eat any quantity at a time, but
to take a piece the size of a nutmeg when hunger was most craving. We
gathered also each day, on our return, about as many partridge berries
as would fill a wine glass apiece, and these we found both refreshing
and nutritive.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36