. 
‘| 
NORTHERN OCEAN. 
the place at which we had prepared wood-work 
for canoes in the Spring one thoufand feven hun- 
dred and feventy-one. 
As the morning of the firft of May was ex- 
ceedingly fine and pleafant, with a light air from 
the South, anda great thaw, we walked eight 
or nine miles to the Eaft by North, when a heavy 
fall of fnow came on, which was followed, or 
indeed more properly accompanied, by a hard 
gale of wind from the north Weft. Atte time 
the bad weather began, we were on the top of 
a high barren hill, a confiderable diftance from 
any woods; judging it to be no more than a 
{quall, we- fat down, in expectation of its foon 
pafling by. As the night, however, advanced, 
the gale increafed to fuch a degree, that it was 
impoflible for a man to ftand upright; fo that 
we were obliged to lie down, without any other 
defence againft the weather, than putting our 
fledges and other lumber to windward of us, 
which in reality was of no real fervice, as it only 
harboured a great drift of fnow, with which in 
| fome places we were covered to the depth of two 
or three feet; and as the night was not very 
cold, I found myfelf, and many others who were 
with me, long before morning in a puddle of 
| water, occafioned by the heat of our bodies melt- 
ing the fnow. ! 
The fecond proved fine pleafant weather, with 
warm funfhine. In the morning, having dried 
all 
