Presumably he and the two "common white men" who
were with him travelled on snowshoes and hauled small sledges after
them. Travelling westward they passed over bleak hills with very
little vegetation--"the barren grounds, where, in general, we thought
ourselves well off if we could scrape together as many shrubs as would
make a fire; but it was scarcely ever in our power to make any other
defence against the weather than by digging a hole in the snow down to
the moss, wrapping ourselves up in our clothing, and lying down in it,
with our sledges set up edgeways to windward". But the principal
Indian guide that he engaged was so obviously determined to make the
expedition a failure that Hearne returned to his base, Prince of
Wales's Fort, and made a second start on the 23rd of February, 1770,
this time taking care not to be accompanied by any other white men,
and insisting that the Indians who accompanied him should be more
carefully chosen.
It must be remembered that in all these early expeditions, French and
English, the explorers relied for their food almost entirely on what
could be obtained as they went along, in the way of venison, grouse,
geese, fish, and wild fruits. In the springtime they would probably
get goose eggs and some form of maple sugar through the Indians. From
the summer to the autumn there would be an abundance of wild fruits
and nuts, but for the rest of the year it would be a diet almost
entirely of flesh or fish.
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