64 M'Keevors Voyage to Hudson's Bay. 



them. Their opinion of the origin of mankind is, that the 

 Great Spirit made the first men and women out of the eartn, 

 three in number of each ; that those whom we Europeans 

 sprang from were made from a whiter earth than what their 

 progenitors were ; and that there was one pair of still blacker 

 earth than that from which they were formed. Almost all of 

 them believe in a future state of rewards and punishments, 

 but unhappily they have blended with these important truths 

 the most puerile and extravagant fancies, which are neither 

 founded on rational piety, or productive of moral obligation^ 



The climate here is almost always wintry ; the hot weather, 

 though violent, being of very short duration. About October 1 , 

 the snow begins to appear, and continues to fall at intervals 

 the entire winter. During this season, the thermometer is 

 often known to fall fifty degrees below the freezing point. 

 Wine is said to freeze into a solid mass ; and brandy to as- 

 sume a coagulated form ;* even the breath is said to fall in 

 the form of hoar-frost upon the blankets. Frozen mercury 

 has been reduced to plates as thin as paper, by beating it on 

 an anvil previously reduced to the same temperature. When 

 put into a glass of warm-water, a curious appearance is ob- 

 served : the water instantly becomes solid, while the mercury 

 passes to the fluid state. By the rapidity of the action, the 

 glass in which it was immersed was shivered into a thousand 

 pieces. 



During this season, the inhabitants live principally in tents, 

 constructed after the manner already mentioned, the sides df 

 which are covered with snow for the purpose of increasing* 

 their warmth. Frequently, for weeks together, no one dare 



venture out, without running great risk of their lives. 







" Nought around 



Strikes his sad eye, but deserts lost in snow, 

 And heavy loaded groves, and solid floods, 

 That stretch athwart the solitary vast 

 Their icy horrors to the frozen main."f 



* If in drinking a dram of brandy out of a glass, one's tongue or lips 

 touch it, in pulling them away the skin is left upon it. An odd instance of 

 this sort happened to one of our people who was carrying a bottle of spirits 

 from the house to his tent ; for, not having a cork to stop the bottle, he made 

 use of his finger, which was soon frozen fast, by which accident he lost a 

 part of it to make a cure practicable. 



t If a door or window was but opened, the cold air rushed in witli great 

 fury, and turned the inclosed vapours into small snow. Nor was all the heat 

 we could raise sufficient to keep our windows, the ceiling, or sides of the 

 house, clear from snow or ice. Those whose bed-clothes touched the walls, 

 wore generally froze fast to them by morning ; and our brraths settled in a 

 white hoar-frost upon the blankets. See ELLIS'S Voyage to Hudson's Say, p. 81 . 



