ce of bacon. This ration we had pledged
ourselves to use only in case of the direst necessity, should we be
compelled to make a forced retreat, and we felt we must not think of it
at this time as food on hand.

In camp on Friday night I could see that Hubbard was worrying
considerably. Nervously active by habit, he found delay doubly hard.
The days we had spent on Lake Disappointment in a vain search for a
river had been particularly trying on his nerves, and had left him a
prey to many fears. The spectre of an early winter in this sub-Arctic
land began to haunt him constantly. The days were slipping away and
were becoming visibly shorter with each sunset. If we could get to the
Indians on the George, we should be safe; for they would give us warm
skins for clothing and replenish our stock of food. But should we meet
with more delays, and arrive on the George too late for the caribou
migration, and fail to find the Indians, what then? Well, then, our
fate would be sealed. Hubbard was the leader of the expedition and he
felt himself responsible, not only for his own life, but, to a large
extent, for ours. It is little wonder, therefore, that he brooded over
the possibilities of calamity, but with youth, ambition, and the ardent
spirit that never will say die, he invariably fought off his fears, and
bent himself more determinedly than ever to achieve the purpose for
which he had set out. Frequently he confided his fears to me, but was
careful to conceal all traces of them from George.

In light marching order we went out on Saturday morning (August 29),
making rapid progress to the northward, through a thick growth of small
spruce timber and over a low ridge; but scarcely had we gone a mile
when we were compelled to halt. There in front of us was a small lake
extending east and west. It was not more than an eighth of a mile
across it, but a long distance around it. Back we went for the canoe,
and at the same time brought forward the whole camp outfit. Again we
tried light marching order, and again a lake compelled us to go back
for the canoe and outfit. And thus it was all day: a stretch of a mile
or so; then a long, narrow lake to cross, until finally we were forced
to admit that our plan of proceeding with light packs and without the
canoe was impracticable.

Hubbard was feeling stronger on Saturday evening, and we had a pleasant
camp. George made a big fire of tamarack, and we lay before it on a
couch