Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/368

338 I have now detailed the means by which we contrived to subsist during three-fourths of the year, the most important and engrossing care of an Arctic resident, but which has little to attract or interest the reader. As to the weather, it was extremely backward; the thermometer in the sweet month of May was as low as —15° and the mean temperature of the whole month was 7½° of frost, with frequent gales and snow. Not a drop of water appeared anywhere, and on the open lake the snow was so hard frozen as to afford excellent walking without snow-shoes.

On the 28th our express-men returned from Fort Norman. Their outward journey, across Great Bear Lake, had been favourable, and they reached Fort Franklin on the 6th. There they found a wonderful change. The upper part of Bear Lake River was open, the willows had begun to bud, and all the small streams from thence to Fort Norman were swollen to such a degree, that the journey through the woods, though not exceeding fifty miles of direct distance, occupied a week; during the greater part of which they were without food, and endured incredible misery, not the least part of which was, that, though wild fowl were numerous in every swamp and pond, they were unable to