934: A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
ash-coloured patch on their back ; but the fawns 
appeared to be entirely of that colour. The next 
animals I ought to mention, if I take them accord- 
ing to their size, are a couple of wolves which we 
saw one afternoon; but as we had but a dis- 
tant view, I can say nothing about them. We 
had also a distant view, two or three times, of some 
foxes ; the only thing in which they appeared to 
differ from those that were caught during the win- 
ter was, in their having a black patch on their 
sides a little before their hind quarters. 
We saw several hares during the time we were 
out, and killed four; their average weight was 
from: seven to eight pounds; they were perfectly 
white, with the exception of the tips of their 
ears, which were black. ‘These were all the varie- 
ties of quadrupeds which we observed, and of the 
feathered tribe the number was not much greater. 
Brent geese, king ducks, and long-tailed ducks, 
arctic and glaucous gulls, comprised the whole 
of the aquatic birds; and a few ptarmigans, plo- 
vers, sanderlings, and snow-buntings, were all the 
land birds that were seen. ‘The geese for the first 
two or three days after we went out, were pretty 
numerous, but, on finding themselves disturbed, 
most of them went away, and those that remained 
secured themselves. by keeping in the middle of 
two or three large lakes, where our shot would not 
reach them ; we succeeded, however, in killing a 
dozen during the time we were near them. The 
ducks were not numerous, so that our success in 
that way was very trifling. With respect to the 
ptarmigans, I believe all were killed that were 
seen, viz. fifteen; and, if fifty times the number 
