OF THE POLAR SEA. 97 



our residence and formed a topic of conversation 

 for the rest of the day. 



On the 9th the approach of spring was still 

 more agreeably confirmed by the appearance of 

 a merganser and two gulls, and some loons, or 

 arctic divers, at the rapid. This day, to reduce 

 the labour of dragging meat to the house, the 

 women and children and all the men, except four, 

 were sent to live at the Indian tents. 



The blue-berries, crow-berries, eye-berries, and 

 cran-berries, which had been covered, and pro- 

 tected by the snow during the winter, miglit at 

 this time be gathered in abundance, and proved 

 indeed a valuable resource. The ground con- 

 tinued frozen, but the heat of the sun had a visible 

 effect on the vegetation ; the sap thawed in the 

 pine-trees, and Dr. Richardson informed me that 

 the mosses were beginning to shoot, and that the 

 calyptree of some of the jungermanniee were al- 

 ready visible. 



On the 11th Mr. Wentzel returned from the 

 Indiau lodges, having made the necessary ar- 

 rangements with Akaitcho for the drying of meat 

 for summer use, the bringing of fresh meat to the 

 fort, and the procuring a sufficient quantity of 

 the resin of the spruce-fir, or as it is termed by 

 the voyagers gtm, for repairing the canoes pre- 

 vious to starting, and during the voyage. By my 



