CHAP. V.] RAIN. 337 



shrill screaming overhead, he looked round, and 

 saw a large white hawk with the tips of the wings 

 and the end of the tail black, chasing, what he 

 imagined to be a solan goose, but which, from 

 his description, I considered to be one of the 

 northern divers. The hawk kept always above 

 and repeatedly struck at it but without accom- 

 plishing its purpose, when, scared by the sound of 

 Lieutenant M' Murdo's dog- whistle, it wheeled 

 round and went off slowly towards the south, in 

 a direction for the coast of Labrador. The only 

 hawks of a similar description that I remember 

 to have seen, were a few, found on the rocky 

 borders of Artillery Lake in latitude 6 C 2° 56' N. 

 and longitude 108° 24' W.; and it maybe worth 

 remarking that the broad feathers of the tail are 

 held in such high estimation by the more war- 

 like tribes of Indians, that there is scarcely any 

 thing they will not give to obtain them. 



In the latter part of the day the snow was 

 converted into drizzling rain, the first we had 

 had for more than eight months, and in date 

 corresponding with remarkable precision to the 

 same circumstance in the interior of the Hudson 

 Bay Company's territories. At Fort Franklin, in 

 latitude 65° 1 V5& f N. and longitude 123° 08'52" W. 

 in 1826, the first shower of rain fell on the 11th 

 of May. At Fort Enterprise in 1 820, being in lati- 

 tude 64° 28' 24" N., and longitude 113° 06 '00" W., 



z 



