of extreme debility, which caused us to move very slowly, and to make frequent halts. On arriving at the pines, we were much alarmed to find that Michel was absent. We feared that he had lost his way in coming to us, although it was not easy to conjecture how that could have happened, as our footsteps of yesterday were very distinct. Hepburn went back for the tent, and returned with it after dusk, completely worn out with the fatigue of the day. Michel too arrived at the same time, and relieved our anxiety on his account. He reported that he had been in chase of some deer which passed near his sleeping-place in the morning, and although he did not come up with them, yet that he found a wolf which had been killed by the stroke of a deer’s horn, and had brought a part of it. We implicitly believed this story then, but afterwards became convinced from circumstances, the detail of which may be spared, that it must have been a portion of the body of Belanger or Perrault. A question of moment here presents itself; namely, whether he actually murdered these men, or either of them, or whether he found the bodies in the snow. Captain Franklin, who is the best able to judge of this matter, from knowing their situation when he parted from them, suggested the former idea. When Perrault turned back. Captain Franklin watched him until he reached a small group of willows, which was immediately adjoining to the fire, and concealed it from view, and at this time the smoke of fresh fuel was distinctly visible. Captain Franklin conjectures that Michel, having already destroyed Belanger, completed his crime by Perrault’s death, in order to screen himself from detection: the subsequent conduct of the man showed that he was capable of committing such a deed. It is not easy to assign any other adequate motive for bis concealing from us that Perrault had turned back; while his request overnight that we should leave him the hatchet, and his cumbering himself with it when he went out in the morning, unlike a hunter, who makes use only of bis knife when he kills a deer, seem to indicate that he took it for the purpose of cutting up something that he knew to be frozen. These opinions, however, are the result of subsequent considerations.
“On the following morning the tent was pitched; Michel went out early, refused my offer to accompany him, and remained away the whole day. On the 14th he again set out, as he said, to hunt, but returned un-expectedly in a very short time. This conduct surprised us, and his contradictory and evasory answers to our questions excited some suspicions, but they did not turn towards the truth. In the course of the 15th he expressed much regret that he had stayed behind Captain Franklin’s party, and declared that he would set out for the house at once if he knew the way. Next day he refused either to hunt or cut wood, spoke in a very surly manner, and threatened to leave us. Under these circumstances, Mr. Hood and I deemed it better to promise, if he would hunt diligently for four days, that then we would give Hepburn a letter for Captain Franklin, a compass, inform him what course to pursue, and let them proceed to-