Chapter IV

State of things at Repulse Bay--Determine to discontinue the
survey till the spring--Reasons--Party sent to bring over the
boat--Fix on a site for winter residence--Ptarmigan--Laughing
geese--Eider and king ducks--Visits of natives too
frequent--Return of the party sent for the boat--Report the bay
more closely packed than before--Preparations for
wintering--Fort Hope built--Proceed to North Pole and Christie
Lakes to look out for fishing stations--Purchase dogs--Wariness
of the deer--Flocks of geese pass southward--Blue-winged and
snow-geese--Their habits--Snow-storm--Its effects--Return to
Fort Hope--Daily routine--Signs of winter--Deer
numerous--Quantity of game killed--Provision-store built of
snow--Great fall of snow--Effects of the cold--Adventure with a
deer--Visited by a party of natives--Their report of the ice
westward of Melville Peninsula--An island said to be
wooded--Produce of the chase in October--Temperature--Two
observatories built of snow--Band of wolves--A party caught in a
snow-storm--Esquimaux theory of the heavenly bodies--Temperature
of November--Diminished supply of provisions 61

CHAPTER V.

Winter arrangements completed--Learn to build
snow-houses--Christmas-day--North Pole River frozen to the
bottom--1st January--Cheerfulness of the men--Furious
snow-storm--Observatories blown down--Boat buried under the
snow--Ouligbuck caught in the storm--Dog attacked by a
wolf--Party of natives take up their residence near Fort
Hope--Esquimaux mentioned by Sir John Ross known to them--Boat
dug out of the snow--A runaway wife--Deer begin to migrate
northward--A wolf-chase--First deer of the season
shot--Difficulty of deer-hunting in spring--Dimensions of an
Esquimaux canoe--Serious accident to Ouligbuck--A
conjuror--Preparations for the journey
northward--Temperature--Aurora Borealis 81