OF THE FUR-BEARING ANIMALS 37 



down that a team of dogs with their sledge will only 

 move backwards when a swell arises. The average 

 temperature all the year round is at Hopedale 27 F., 

 at Nain 22-5 F., that is a mean average tempera- 

 ture of 5 and 9-5 respectively of frost. During the 

 months the sea is open, countless islands of ice are 

 driven all along the coast, while snowslips often 

 make the land dangerous. A settler, his two sons, 

 and son-in-law were ascending the slope of an island 

 near Sandwich Bay to witness the first break-up of 

 the ice in spring, when an avalanche of snow buried 

 all but one son, who was a few yards behind the 

 rest. Rushing to where he saw his father last, and 

 tearing away the hard-frozen snow with hand and 

 foot, he came eventually on his father's head, four 

 feet below the surface. Though his father heard the 

 son searching, he could neither stir nor shout to 

 guide him, from the weight of snow over him. This 

 man told me the sad story. The other two lads 

 were lost. 



Storms of exceptional violence and of sudden onset 

 occasionally visit the coast. The wind seems to blow 

 from all quarters at once, hurling clouds of sea- water 

 as dust, often mixed with icy spicules, far over the 

 land. A few years ago a vessel in Black Tickle, 

 lying at anchor near Gready, was carried up and left 

 on the rocks twenty feet above high-water line; at 

 the same time 4,000 of damage was done, in that one 

 harbour alone, by all the stages with the summer's 

 voyage of fish and all the boats being suddenly 



