Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/246

216 duration. So early as the 11th of November, the thermometer fell to 32° below zero. The average temperature of the latter half of December was —33½° and that of all January —30°.

The most intense cold was frequently accompanied by strong winds from the east and north-east, and both men and dogs were severely frostbitten while traversing the barren grounds for food. Few of the animal creation remained around us during this dreary period. An occasional track of a wolf, wolverene, or marten was met with in woody spots; a single alpine hare was snared; a very few brace of white ptarmigan were shot; and in the barren grounds to the eastward I procured a curious hawk-owl. On the south-east side of M'Tavish Bay the Indians found the track of a stray moose, which they regarded as an extraordinary occurrence, for that animal loves the shelter of thick woods. The only regular visitants at the house were the raven and the whiskey-john (garrulus Canadensis). A considerable colony of mice hibernated in our store, where they committed some depredations; and a marmot was found frozen to death near one of the fisheries. The white-fish, which were of a tolerable size in the fall, were succeeded in scanty numbers by a smaller and lighter-coloured species during the winter, when the fish