The fire was made on the ground in the centre of the floor, which floor was covered all over with small branches of firs and pines serving as seats and beds.

Pine foliage and branches were laid round the bottom of the poles on the outside, and a quantity of snow was packed all round the exterior of the tent, thus excluding a great part of the external air, and contributing much to the warmth within.
For a month or more Hearne camped in this fashion by the side of a lake, waiting till the season was sufficiently open for him to continue his journey by water.

He and his party of Indians lived mainly on fish, but when these became scarce they attempted to snare grouse or kill deer.

In the intervals of rare meals all the party smoked or slept, unless they were obliged to go out to hunt and fish.
They would delight, after killing deer, in securing as much as possible of the blood and turning it into broth by boiling it in a kettle with fat and scraps of meat.

This was reckoned a dainty dish.
Their spoons, dishes, and other necessary household furniture were cut out of birch bark.
[Illustration: LAKE LOUISE, THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS] By the 19th of May, geese, swans, ducks, gulls, and other birds of passage were so plentiful, flying from south to north, and halting to rest at the lake, that Hearne felt the time had come to resume his journey, provisions being now very plentiful and the worst of the thaw over.