Mak. 1859. DR. WALKEK'S RETURN. 241 



2dth. — Continued fine weather. A couple 

 more foxes and a lemming in its brown coat 

 have been captured, and a hare and four ptar- 

 migan shot. This fine bright weather seems 

 to have awakened the lemmings and ermines; 

 their tracks, which were very rarely seen during 

 winter, are now tolerably numerous ; foxes 

 appear in greater numbers, probably following 

 up the ptarmigan from the south. The ther- 

 mometer ranges between zero and — 20° ; it has 

 once been up to + 13°. When exposed to a 

 noonday sun against the ship's side it rises 

 50° higher. The earth-thermometer — placed 

 2 feet 2 inches beneath the surface — which gra- 

 dually fell until the 10th of this month, has 

 now begun to ascend ; its minimum was + i° ; 

 much snow also lay over it, 6 feet deep at this 

 season. 



On the 25th Dr. Walker and his party re- 

 turned, not having been able to find the depot. 

 They found a barrel of flour upon the beach a 

 few miles south of Brentford Bay ; it appeared 

 to have lain there for years, just inside a shingle 

 projection, which kept off the ice pressure, so 

 that it had not been forced up high upon the 

 beach ; the ice which bore it there — probably 

 from Port Leopold — had disappeared, and the 

 cask was frozen into the shingle. The heading 



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