From a hill near this bay, where we killed the deer, on the eastern
side of the lake, we discovered a trail leading off toward a string of
lakes to the eastward. This is undoubtedly the portage trail which
the Indians follow in their journeys to the Post at Davis Inlet. Toma
had told me we might see it here, and that, not far in, on one of
these lakes was another Indian camp.

An inordinate craving for fat takes possession of every one after a
little while in the bush. We had felt it, and now, with plenty,
overindulged, with the result that we were attacked with illness, and
for a day or two I was almost too sick to move.

The morning we left Atuknipi, or Reindeer Lake, as we shall call the
expansion, a blinding snowstorm was raging, with a strong head wind.
Several rapids were run though it was extremely dangerous work, for at
times we could scarcely see a dozen yards ahead. At midday the snow
ceased, but the wind increased in velocity until finally we found it
quite out of the question to paddle against it, and were forced to
pitch camp on the shores of a small expansion and under the lee of a
hill. For two days the gale blew unceasingly and held us prisoners in
our camp. The waves broke on the rocky shores, sending the spray
fifty feet in the air and, freezing on the surrounding bowlders,
covered them with a glaze of ice. I cannot say what the temperature
was, for on the day of our arrival here my last thermometer was
broken; but with half a foot of snow on the ground, the freezing spray
and the bitter cold wind, we were warned that winter was reaching out
her hand toward Labrador and would soon hold us in her merciless
grasp. This made me chafe under our imprisonment, for I began to fear
that we should not reach the Post before the final freeze-up came, and
further travel by canoe would be out of the question. On the morning