194 NATIVE HOSPITALITY. 



of great satisfaction, the place of honour by the lamp 

 and at the board were awarded him, and no means 

 spared to prove that he was welcome. Being 

 informed by Belkonta, who was of the party, how 

 little the ordinary food was to the taste of the 

 strangers, only preparations of venison were offered, 

 and I feasted like an alderman. Nothing equalled 

 the pemmican for flavour or substance ; it was 

 manufactm'ed of the finest fresh meat, boiled and 

 mixed with hard fat, put into bladders and allowed 

 to freeze, in which state it was delicious, and par- 

 ticularly refreshing in the heated yarangas. By the 

 way, I cannot understand how the natives can 

 endure these great extremes of heat and cold ; I have 

 quitted an outward temperature of — 20° to enter 

 yarangas where the thermometer registered + 100°; 

 a change of a hundred and twenty degrees in one day 

 seems almost enough to kill one, but this is expe- 

 rienced by the Tuski pretty well during their entire 

 lives, and they are certainly hardy and robust 

 enough. 



On our return the spring had faii'ly set in, and 

 the noonday power of the sun softened the surface 

 of the snow, which speedily froze again, on the 

 withdrawal of his beams. The face of the country 

 became one vast sheet of shining sparkling white, 



