218 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



and daily added a table, chair, or bedstead, 

 to the comforts of our establishment. The 

 crooked knife, generally made of an old 

 file, bent and tempered by heat, serves an 

 Indian or Canadian voyager for plane, chisel, 

 and auger. With it the snow-shoe and 

 canoe -timbers are fashioned, the deals of 

 their sledges reduced to the requisite thin- 

 ness and polish, and their wooden bowls 

 and spoons hollowed out. Indeed, though 

 not quite so requisite for existence as the 

 hatchet, yet without its aid there would be 

 little comfort in these wilds. 



On the 7th we were gratified by a sight 

 of the sun, after it had been obscured for 

 twelve days. On this and several follow- 

 ing days the meridian sun melted the light 

 covering of snow or hoar frost on the lichens, 

 which clothe the barren grounds, and ren- 

 dered them so tender as to attract great 

 herds of rein-deer to our neighbourhood. 

 On the morning of the 10th I estimated the 

 numbers I saw during a short walk, at> up- 

 wards of two thousand. They form into 



