LABRADOR JOURNAL 301 



the north shore, for the advantage of the sun. 

 They have no openmg from their house on the 

 land side, and for these reasons; because the 

 frosty air would enter at that hole and freeze up 

 the water in the angle, whereby they would be 

 cut off from their magazine: the wolves likewise 

 and other enemies might enter thereat and kill 

 them; and the cold would be greater than they 

 could bear. For, although they are provided with 

 a thick skin, covered with plenty of long, warm 

 fur, they cannot endure severe frost, being well 

 known, that they die if exposed to it for a short 

 time. By what I have said, the reader will sup- 

 pose they are endued with unerring sagacity, but 

 that is not the case; for they have been known 

 to build their house in a pond, where there was 

 such a scarcity of food, that they have all died for 

 want; or in one, that lay in a flat cotmtn^, which, 

 by a great thaw in the winter, has been flooded; 

 when they have been obliged to cut a hole through 

 the crown of the lodging, and by so doing, and the 

 water freezing in their house on the return of the 

 frost, they have not been able to get into it again, 

 but have all been found dead upon it. At other 

 times, they have lived on a brook, where a thaw 

 has caused such a stream as has washed away all 

 their food, and consequently starved them. They 

 will often i-im a siint across a narrow valley, 

 through which a siii;ill drain of water runs, and 

 where plenty of willows, alders and such like 

 things grow, .-hhI make a ponrl for themselves. 

 The fntTier has then oiilv to cut the stint, and 



