464 ADVANCE OF THE SPRING. 



the degree of cold atone place, furnishes no infer- 

 ence which can be relied upon as to the temper- 

 ature of another place even moderately distant. 



About the beginning of May, the whole of 

 the lake began to look black and decayed : pools 

 of water were soon formed, and then a channel, 

 which gradually extended itself among the 

 islands and along the shoal parts near the 

 shore. By the 15th swans, geese, and different 

 kinds of ducks appeared in large flocks, and 

 were welcomed scarcely more as harbingers of 

 spring than for the amusement of shooting them, 

 and the grateful change which they afforded to 

 the table. Martins and other small birds soon 

 followed. Vegetation also now made rapid pro- 

 gress ; anemones came into flower, the catkins 

 of the willows underwent hourly change, and 

 the small leaf of the birch expanded itself almost 

 perceptibly. Many women of the Fort were at 

 this time also industriously employed in col- 

 lecting the sap of these useful trees, for the 

 purpose of making a sirup used as a substitute 

 for sugar, of which they are extravagantly fond. 



Crops of potatoes and barley are sometimes 

 grown at Chipewyan ; but these in the past 

 season had failed, owing, as I imagine, to the 

 proximity of the places of culture to the lake, and 

 their consequent exposure to the chilling winds 

 so prevalent here about the autumn and spring. 

 Another trial, however, was now made, and 



