DEER-HUNTING. 325 



of foul and boisterous weather, a very chaos 

 of wind and storm, against which it was vain 

 to struggle. 



July 13th was still hazy with showers, but my 

 patience was exhausted ; and at 5 a. m. we started, 

 and found ourselves in what might be called a 

 continuous rapid, which after a few miles was 

 joined by a stream from the left, divided at its 

 confluence by an island near the centre. Near 

 this was a lake, ruffled by a head wind, against 

 which we had some difficulty in making way. 

 Two or three hundred deer, and apart from them 

 herds of musk oxen, were either grazing or sleep- 

 ing on its western banks, which looked green 

 and swampy, and were all more or less cloven by 

 inconsiderable ravines, with a clayey surface. 

 These soon disappeared in the rising ground, 

 which, broken by isolated rocks naked and black, 

 had its boundary in a semicircular range of irre- 

 gularly shaped hills. 



For the first time in nine days the sun shone 

 out in the morning, and I eagerly took occasion 

 of the welcome visit to get sights ; whilst in 

 the meantime our hunters, unable to resist the 

 tempting neighbourhood of so many animals, and 

 fidgetty to try their new guns, were allowed to 

 go in pursuit, with the express stipulation, how- 

 ever, that they were not to fire at the does or 

 the last year's fawns. In less than an hour they 



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