THE wanderers had now accomplished four hundred
and seventy-two miles of their dreary journey since
leaving the Caldron Linn, how much further they had
yet to travel, and what hardships to encounter, no one
knew.

On the morning of the 6th of December, they left
their dismal encampment, but had scarcely begun their
march, when, to their surprise, they beheld a party of
white men coming up along the opposite bank of the
river. As they drew nearer, they were recognized for
Mr. Crooks and his companions. When they came op-
posite, and could make themselves heard across the
murmuring of the river, their first cry was for food;
in fact, they were almost starved. Mr. Hunt immedi-
ately returned to the camp, and had a kind of canoe
made out of the skin of the horse, killed on the pre-
ceding night. This was done after the Indian fashion,
by drawing up the edges of the skin with thongs, and
keeping them distended by sticks or thwart pieces. In
this frail bark, Sardepie, one of the Canadians, car-
ried over a portion of the flesh of the horse to the
famishing party on the opposite side of the river, and
brought back with him Mr. Crooks, and the Canadian,
Le Clerc. The forlorn and wasted looks, and starving
condition of these two men, struck dismay to the hearts
of Mr. Hunt's followers. They had been accustomed
to each other's appearance, and to the gradual opera-
tion of hunger and hardship upon their frames, but
the change in the looks of these men, since last they
parted, was a type of the famine and desolation of the
land; and they now began to indulge the horrible
presentiment that they would all starve together, or be
reduced to the direful alternative of casting lots!

-278-