362 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. X. 



During these intense colds, however, the atmosphere was 

 generally calm, and the wood-cutters and others went about 

 their ordinary occupations without using any extraordinary 

 precautions, yet without feeling any bad effects. They had 

 their reindeer shirts on, leathern mittens lined with blankets, 

 and furred caps ; but none of them used any defence for the 

 face, nor did they need to do so. Indeed we have already 

 mentioned that the heat is abstracted most rapidly from the 

 body during strong breezes ; and most of those who have 

 perished from cold in this country have fallen a sacrifice to 

 their being overtaken on a lake, or other unsheltered place, 

 by a storm of wind. The intense Colds were, however, 

 detrimental to us in another way. The trees froze to their 

 very centres, and became as hard as stones, and more dif- 

 ficult to cut. Some of the axes were broken daily, and by 

 the end of the month we had only one left that was fit for 

 felling trees. By intrusting it only to one of the party who 

 had been bred a carpenter, and who could use it with dex- 

 terity, it was fortunately preserved until the arrival of our 

 men with others from Fort Providence. 



"A thermometer, hung in our bed-room at the distance 

 of sixteen feet from the fire, but exposed to its direct radia- 

 tion, stood, even in the day-time, occasionally at 15° below 

 zero, and was observed more than once, previous to the 

 kindling of the fire in the morning, to be as low as 40° below 

 zero. On two of these occasions the chronometers (Nos. 

 2149 and 2151), which during the night lay under Mr. 

 Hood's and Dr. Richardson's pillows, stopped while they 

 were dressing themselves." — pp. 254, 255. 



In one of the families that frequented the house 



was a good-looking girl, concerning whom Captain 



Franklin gives the following anecdote : — 



" I may remark, that the daughter, whom we designated 

 Green-stockings, from her dress, is considered by her tribe 



