HUNTING PARTIES. 431 



us all well and in excellent spirits during another 

 tedious winter, so that on the 1st of April we had 

 upwards of a thousand pounds of venison hanging at 

 the yard-arms." 



Musk-oxen were very numerous. They were found 

 to be very ferocious, and great danger sometimes 

 attended the attacks. They were easily approached, 

 but when wounded they ran headlong at their assailant. 

 On one occasion, Sergeant Woon, of the marines, while 

 in pursuit of a wounded deer, unexpectedly met a 

 couple of musk-bulls, which he succeeded in wounding. 

 Having expended his shot, as one of the wounded and 

 infuriated monsters rushed towards him, he fired his 

 <l worm " when at a few yards, but without much effect. 

 The animal continued his advances, evidently, however, 

 weak from loss of blood, till he had reached within six 

 feet, when he put his head to the ground, as if for a 

 final rush. As his last resource, the sergeant fired his 

 iron ramrod, which, entering behind the animal's left 

 shoulder, passed through the heart and out at the right 

 flank, dropping him lifeless. 



December found the crew of the Investigator passing 

 their time cheerfully in their far-distant home in Mercy 

 Bay. The month came in with a succession of those 

 tremendous snow-storms, which are, perhaps, the most 

 frightful visitations of the polar regions. But, after the 

 new year (1852) began, the weather was fine, with a 

 keen and steady cold of from seventy to eighty degrees 

 below the freezing-point of water a temperature which 

 severely tests the vital energies of man. Yet, what 

 with cheerfulness, exercise, and regular habits, the crew 

 were in good health. 



One of the hunting parties had well-nigh proved fatal 

 to a colored man serving on board the ship. He had 

 wounded a deer, and chased it till a fog came on, and 



