4 January: Clear sky, sun, calm, very cold. At seven thirty the mercury was again down in the bulb. No wind, but [a] breeze from the east. Weather nice; the sleds loaded [Page 3:136] with wood [met] little resistance from the wind. At nine o’clock or nine thirty, we thought some of Picotte’s people [were] coming on the ice, [and] they really were. Two engagés with two horse sleds had been sent. One was loaded with merchandise and the other with dry, very hard meat. They had spent the two coldest days in the forest, where the wolves stole some of the meat from them during the night. Mr. Picotte wrote [that] he did not think Kipp’ s horses were capable of much [and] therefore he did not load too much [on the sleds]; he would send more shortly. At noon, not as cold. At one o’clock, −12°F [−24.4°C]. Durand and Mató Mató-Tópe visited us.

In the evening we had a fairly good temperature in Kipp’s room, where we all got together—that is, Belhumeur, Charbonneau, and de l’Orme, in addition to us three strangers. In our room, we could not stand it. Flying War Eagle (Máhchsi-Karéhde) visited us with a pretty woman he was supposed to have kidnapped for today. They slept in our room on the floor and froze [there]. The night [was] not as cold as yesterday.