i6o 



LAKE PARMACHINI, 



like appearance, so we had to go forth in the 

 darkness, into a strange locality, and establish and 

 make a new domicile. But our labour in this 

 respect was not a perfect succes^, for the blankets, 

 boots, and stockings could not be deprived of their 

 disgusting smell. However, I had two wrappers and 

 a bear skin. The use of one of these I promised my 

 friend. The last 1 saw of him that night, before I 

 went to sleep, he was engaged piling cobble stones 

 into his feet protectors before submerging them in 

 the lake, where his blankets and stockings had 

 already been deposited with an edifice of boulders 

 over each, sufficiently large to make a cairn. I said 

 just now, "saw him." That was quite correct, but I 

 do not wish to infer that I did not hear him. That 

 I did, and I regret to say that his rhetoric was more 

 forcible than ever I will acknowledge that the cir- 

 cumstances were trying, very trying indeed. They 

 were these. As soon as the master got into a com- 

 fortable position, and sleep appeared about to come 

 to his exhausted frame, his dog would attempt to 

 crawl under his covering and get close to its owner, 

 and as the dog smelt as strong as the garments 

 submerged in the lake, I am not so very much sur- 

 prised that some foul expressions should escape 

 my friend's mouth, at an unguarded moment. 



Next morning a change took place in the weather, 

 which I anticipated from the restlessness of the 

 numerous water-fowl, more especially of the lunes, 

 or great northern divers. From break of day to 

 sunrise these birds' shrill, weird call could be heard 

 in every direction, evidence that strangers of the 

 species had arrived from the north during the dark- 

 ness, where hard weather had already commenced to 

 set in. S^'^w in large flakes descended soon after it 

 became thoroughly light, but it fell in that vacillating, 

 shiftless manner that it ever does when there is no 

 wind. For experiment sake, I took my rod and 



