OF THE POLAR SEA, 39 
skins. The fire is placed in the centre, and a 
hole is left for the escape of the smoke. The 
inmates had a squalid look, and were suffering 
under the combined afflictions of hooping-cough 
and measles; but even these miseries did not 
keep them from an excessive indulgence in the 
use of spirits, which they unhappily can procure 
from the traders with too much facility ; and they 
nightly serenaded us with their monotonous 
drunken songs. Their sickness, at this time, was 
particularly felt by the traders, this being the 
season of the year when the exertion of every 
hunter is required to procure their winter’s stock 
of geese, which resort in immense flocks to the 
extensive flats in this neighbourhood. These 
birds, during the summer, retire far to the north, 
and breed in security ; but, when the approach of 
winter compels them to seek a more southern 
climate, they generally alight on the marshes of 
this bay, and.fatten there for three weeks or a 
month, before they,take their final departure from 
the country. They also make a short halt at the 
Same spots in their progress northwards in the 
spring. Their arrival is welcomed with joy, and 
the period of the goose hunt is one of the most 
plentiful seasons of the year. The ducks frequent 
the swamps all the summer. 
The weather was extremely unfavourable for 
