ML-RDorn.] CI.IMATK. 31 



when the sun is .•uiifiiiu;.lly al.ov.^ th.' li.ni/oii, -.uu] for alimil m m„,miIi 

 before auil after this pciimi the twiliylit is sd hriylii all iii"lil tin! 

 stars are visibh-. 



The snowfall (luring- tlic winttT is (■(iniparaiisch small 'nicir is 

 probably not more tliaii a fnot ,,f siKiwdii a li'xcl aiivwInTc on the liml 

 though it is extremely .lirticult to measnie or estimair. as ii is s.Miiie 

 ami dry that it is easily moved by tli.' wind and is coasiantlv in moiio,,. 

 fornHlig- deep, heavy, hard drifts under all the hanks, while irian\ e\" 

 posed places, e.specially tlie toj. of the sand 1iea<-li. are swept enlireh 

 cleau. The snow begins to soft.'n and melt about the ijrst week in 

 April, but goes oft' very slowly, so that the jiToniid is not wholh bare 

 before the middle or end of June. The grass, howexi-i. be-ins to turti 

 green early in June, and a few flowers are seen in blossom as earh as 

 June 7 or 8. 



Rain begins to fall as early as April, but cold, snowy days are not un- 

 common later than that date. There is a good deal of clear, ealm weather 

 during the winter, aud extremely low temiierarnres are seldom aceom 

 panied by high wind. Vi(dent storms are not uiicomnKm. liowcvcr 

 especially in November, during the latter ])art of January, and in Feb- 

 ruary. One gale from the south and southwest, which occurred .lanuarv 

 22, 1882, reached a velocity of KM) miles an hour. The most aureeable 

 season of the year is between the middle of May and the end oi .luly, 

 when the sea opens. After this there is much foggy and clouds weather. 



Fresh-water ponds begin to ft-eeze about the last week in Septemlier, 

 and by the first or second week in October everything is sntticiently 

 frozen for the natives to travel with sledges to tish through the ice of 

 the inland rivers. .Melting begins with the thaw ing of the snow . l)ut the 

 larger jKtnds are not clear of ice till the middle or end of July. The sea 

 in most seasons is ])ermanently closed l>y ticezing and the moving in of 

 heavy ice lields from about tiu- middle of October to the end of .luly. 

 The heavy i<-e in ordiiuiry seasons does not move ver.\- far fiom the shore, 

 while the sea is more or less encumbered with floating masses all summer. 

 These usually grouml on a bar which runs liom the Seahorse Islands 

 along the shore paiallcl to it ami about l.OOO yards distant, forming a 

 "barrier" or "lan<l-floe" of high. l)rokeu hummocks, inshore of wLieh 

 the sea freezes over smooth ami niidisttirbed by the jiressurc of the 

 outer ])a(-k. 



Sometinu's, however, the heavy pack, under the pressure of violent and 

 long-continued westerl\- winds, pushes across the bar and is forced u)> 

 on the beach. Tiie ice sometitm-s comes in with gr<-at rapidity. The 

 natives itdbrmed us that a year or two before the station was estal>lislicd 

 the heavy ice came in against the village clifls. tearing away i.art of the 

 baidv and destroying a house on the edge of the .liff so sudd.'idy that 

 one of the inmates, a large, stout man, was unable to escajic through the 

 trap-door and was crushed to death. Outside of the land-floe the ice is 

 a broken pack, c(msi.stiug of hummocks of fragmentary old ami new ice, 

 inters])ersed with com])aratively level flelds of the formei-. During the 



