OF THE POLAR SEA. 



79 



his having found his way through a part of 

 the country he had never been in before, 

 must be considered a remarkable proof of 

 sagacity. The unusual earliness of this 

 winter became manifest to us from the 

 state of things at this spot. Last year at 

 the same season, and still later, there had 

 been very little snow on the ground, and 

 we were surrounded by vast herds of rein- 

 deer : now there were but few recent tracks 

 of these animals, and the snow was upwards 

 of two feet deep. Winter River was then 

 ISpen, now it was frozen two feet thick. 



When I arose the following morning, my 

 body and limbs were so swollen that I was 

 unable to walk more than a few yards. 

 Adam was in a still worse condition, being 

 absolutely incapable of rising without assist- 

 ance. My other companions happily ex- 

 perienced this inconvenience in a less de- 

 gree, and went to collect bones, and some 

 tripe de roche, which supplied us with two 

 meals. The bones were quite acrid, and 

 the soup extracted from them excoriated 

 the mouth if taken alone, but it was some- 



