

238 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. Feiiisi aky 



snow everywhere. These holes are apparently made 

 for the purpose of ventilation or for the little creatures 

 to look at the returning twilight, for they do not often 

 appear on the surface of the snow at this season ; still 

 their tracks which are very pretty, reminding one 

 of a strip of finely traced embroidery, are to be seen 

 here and there. They appear to be usually contented 

 with the exercise they get in the hollow space under 

 the snow, where the temperature is very little below 

 zero ; their nests must be considerably warmer. I 

 have tried to find these, but they are never situated 

 near to the bottom of the passage by which the lem- 

 mings come to the surface. 



' On examining a plant of Saxifraga oppositifolia, 

 which has not been protected by any snow, and there- 

 fore has been exposed to the severest temperature, 

 green buds were distinctly visible. In 1853 we killed 

 a ptarmigan at Melville Island in February with green 

 buds of willow in its crop. 



6 To-day, at noon, we could distinguish the outline 

 of a man at half a mile distant and faint blue and green 

 tints were observable in the ice-hummocks ; since the 

 1st of November up to this date the ice has been per- 

 fectly white and colourless. 



' 13th. — All the frost-bitten people have at last 

 been put out of the sick list. The temperature remains 

 remarkably steady at about minus 48° with calm 

 weather. A few of us walked to the southward beyond 

 the " Gap of Dunloe." The snow is soft in places, but 

 nowhere is the walking very bad ; the uncertainty in 

 the footing is, however, most annoying. When an 

 apparently hard surface turns out to be soft the severe 



