had made a sparing breakfast. This however but very insufficiently
supplied our wants; and as we sat at this little well, thus surrounded
with such fairy scenery, a variety of philosophic reflections crossed our
minds and found vent in words. Nothing could be more delightfully
romantic than our present position. Both as regarded danger, scenery,
savages, and unknown lands, we were in precisely the situation in which
Mr. Cooper and other novelists delight to depict their travellers, with
this one woeful difference--our wallets were empty. It was in vain I
fumbled about in mine; I could neither find the remains of a venison
pasty, a fat buffalo's hump, or any other delicacy: indeed I had not the
means of keeping life and soul together for many days longer. Deeply did
we regret that we were not favoured for a few days with the company of
Mr. Cooper, that he might in our present difficulties fully initiate us
into the mysterious, nay, almost miraculous means by which his
travellers, even in the most dreary wilds, always contrived to draw forth
from their stock of provender such dainties that the bare recollection of
them made our mouths water; but the necessities of the moment would not
permit me for more than a few minutes to indulge in these speculations,
and we turned therefore from seductive travels of the imagination to the
more stringent ones of reality.

HEAVY LOADS CARRIED BY THE MEN.

I now entreated the men to disencumber themselves of a portion of the
loads which they were attempting to carry. Urged by a miscalculating
desire of gain, when the boats were abandoned they had laid hands upon
canvas and what else they thought would sell at Perth, and some of them
appeared to be resolved rather to risk their lives than the booty they
were bending under. The more tractable threw away the articles I told
them to get rid of; but neither entreaties nor menaces prevailed with the