HOT WEATHER — TRIP TO AMOUR. 191 



CHAPTER XII. 



80° in winter — Trip eastward — Starting — Esquimaux river and island — 

 Salmon bay — Bradore bay — Caribou island — Five leagues — Middle 

 bay — Belles Amour — Over Bradore hills — L'Anse and dunes — Blanc 

 Sablon — L'Anse Coteau — L'Anse Clair — Forteau — Amour. 



Thursday, March 3. This was a remarkable day — though such 

 a day as does at times occur in this region. The thermometer 

 went steadily up, higher and higher, until about two o'clock it 

 reached 80°, and hot enough to make us all wish for summer clothing. 

 Soon it began to descend as rapidly as it had risen, until in the 

 night it must have reached zero, or very near it, again. This, I 

 beHeve, was the hottest day that I experienced on the coast ; 

 summer or winter. 



On Friday morning, the 4th of March, I started on my long 

 expected trip from old Fort Bay to L'Anse Amour, a distance in 

 a straight line of only about thirty-five miles, while, by the way we 

 were obliged to go, along the bays and points of the coast, 

 it was nearly, if not quite, fifty miles. It took us two days to go, 

 and as many to return, while a stay of the same time at different 

 places on the way consumed the greater part of the week. It 

 was a pleasant trip, and the time seemed only too short, while it 

 was quite impossible to see all the numerous sights and go to all the 

 attractive places awaiting us on every hand. The weather was 

 most beautiful, and the air in a continual state of exhilarating 

 freshness. Only one or two small flurries of snow passed over 

 us, while, for the most part, the sky was of a cloudless blue. 

 Occasionally a light haziness concealed the sun, and once a dark 



