he
Sioux before it could reach the fort. To prevent this, he sent out a
couple of scouts to intercept the train, and lead it by a circuitous
route to the north, where it could not be seen from the camp of the
Sioux.

The day went slowly by, and another night came on. Again the distant
camp-fires were seen blazing up, showing that the savages had not
abandoned their designs. What prevented them from at once attacking the
fort it was difficult to say, unless they were better informed with
regard to its scanty supply of provisions than Jaques had supposed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note. In the markets in Canada, not only fish, but animals of all
sorts, frozen hard, are brought for sale, and it is curious to see deer
and hares and pigs standing in rows, like stuffed animals in a museum,
on the market people's stalls; while fish are placed upright on their
tails in the baskets, and look as if they were endeavouring to leap out
of them.

CHAPTER SIX.

THE INDIANS BLOCKADE THE FORT--LAURENCE RECOGNISES THE SIOUX AS OLD
FRIENDS--OBTAINS LEAVE TO GO OUT AND MEET THEM--INDUCES THE SIOUX CHIEF
TO RETIRE--OBTAINS PRESENTS FOR THE INDIANS--ACCOMPANIES THEM--LAURENCE
FINDS HIS OLD NURSE--LAURENCE BIDS FAREWELL TO HIS FRIENDS AT THE FORT.

Several days had passed by; the provision sleighs had not arrived; none
of the hunters had returned to the fort; and already the garrison were
feeling the pangs of hunger. Mr Ramsay had placed the people on the
smallest possible allowance of food, and yet, on examining the remaining
store, he found to his grief that it could not last many days longer.
There were horses and cattle feeding in a sheltered valley some miles
away, and had it not been for the besieging bands of Sioux, they might
easily have been brought in; and unwilling as he would have been to kill
them, they would have afforded an ample supply of food. The fort,
however, was narrowly watched, and had any people been sent out to bring
in the cattle, they would have been pursued and cut off, or had they
succeeded, in getting away, they and the cattle would have been to a
still greater certainty captured on their return. Mr Ramsay,
therefore, unwilling to risk the lives of any of his people, resolved
not to make the attempt till they were reduced to the last extremity.
He feared, from the conduct of the Sioux, that they must have become
acquainted with the condition of th