476 THE FRANKLIN SEAUCff— 18^8-51. 



included barley, potatoes, and flour, in addition to venison and fish ; but the 

 Indians, a large number of whom with their wives and children were main- 

 tained at the fort during the winter, were generally in attendance at meals 

 to receive the unconsumed victuals. 



In the accounts of residence in quarters during the Arctic winter, little 

 variety is to be expected ; and as, in earlier chapters, the winter experiences 

 of all the important Arctic explorers have been recorded more or less fully, 

 the same ever-repeated incidents need not engage our attention in noticing 

 the residence of Richardson at Fort Confidence. In fairness to this emi- 

 nent explorer and naturalist, however, it is necessary to state that, while 

 weather-bound in his log-house on Dease River, in the winter of 1848-49, he 

 carried on a series of observations and investigations in natural history, the 

 efiects of temperature, etc., which, for completeness, width of range, and prac- 

 tical results, throw all the inquiries and observations of previous explorers 

 into the shade. For this reason, therefore, although perfectly weU aware 

 that the all-important topic in hand at present is the search for Franklin, 

 we will hazard a minute's delay over Richardson's winter occupations. 



Much ammunition, and not a little vigorous rhetoric, were expended 

 upon the Indian hunters, who, when they had killed deer on the Barren 

 Grounds, were too careless to bury the meat securely, until it could be sent 

 for from the fort. The consequence was that the Indian caches were in 

 almost every instance broken in upon and robbed by wild animals — ^gener- 

 ally by wolverines, " The wolverine," says Richardson, " is extremely wary, 

 and shows extraordinary sagacity and perseverance in accomplishing its 

 ends. The Indians believe that it is inspired with a spirit of mischief, and 

 endowed with supernatural powers. Though more destructive to their 

 hoards of provision than the wolf, or even the bear, and able to penetrate 

 fences that resist their powerful efibrts, the wolverine is only about thirty 

 inches long, and a foot high at the shoulder." One of these animals was 

 surprised in a cache and killed. Richardson, who gives its exact dimen- 

 sions, describes its legs as being remarkably muscular — the fore ones, when 

 skinned, have a " strong resemblance to a finely - proportioned, muscular 

 human arm, rather than to the limb of a quadruped." This animal breaks 

 its way into a cache by gnawing asunder one of the logs that form its roof ; 

 and in doing so it works so hard that " it causes its mouth to bleed, as the 

 ends of the logs and the snow often testify. Once admitted into the hoard, 

 it has to gnaw the pieces of meat asunder, as they are generally frozen 

 together, and then it proceeds to drag them out one by one, and to bury 

 them in the snow, each in a separate place. As it travels backwards and 

 forwards over the meat, it smears it with a pecuharly fetid, glandular secre- 

 tion, after which no other animal will touch it. In this way one of these 

 beasts will spoil a large cache in an hour or two, and wholly empty it in 



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