; a large compass; and a bag containing all his wearing
apparel; also a hatchet, a number of knives, files, &c., and several
small articles intended for presents to the natives--in short, a
weight of _sixty pounds_. Moreover, the barren ground was quite
unsuited to the pitching of the southern type of tent, the poles of
which obviously could not be driven into the bare rock, so that Hearne
was obliged to sleep in the open air in all weathers. Very often he
was unable to make a fire, and was constantly reduced to eating his
meat quite raw. "Notwithstanding these accumulated and complicated
hardships, we continued in perfect health and good spirits." The
average day's walk was twenty miles, sometimes without any other
subsistence than a pipe of tobacco and a drink of water.
At last they saw three musk oxen grazing by the side of a small lake.
This seemed a splendid piece of fortune, but, to their mortification,
before they could get one of them skinned, a tremendous downpour of
rain ensued, so as to make it out of their power to have a fire, for
their only form of fuel was moss. And the flesh of the musk ox eaten
raw was disgusting; it was coarse and tough, and tasted so strongly of
musk that Hearne could hardly swallow it. "None of our natural wants,"
he writes, "except thirst, are so distressing or hard to endure as
hunger.
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