240 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



the tents, but began to amend soon after he was enabled to confine 

 himself to the more equable warmth of the house. We took up 

 our abode at first on the floor, but our working party, who had 

 shewn such skill as house-carpenters, soon proved themselves to be, 

 with the same tools, the hatchet and crooked knife, excellent cabinet- 

 makers, 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 thinness 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 the several following 

 days the meridian sun melted the light covering of snow or hoar 

 frost on the lichens, which clothe the barren grounds, and rendered 

 them so tender as to attract great herds of rein-deer to our neigh- 

 bourhood. On the morning of the 10th I estimated the numbers I 

 saw during a short walk, at upwards of two thousand. They form 

 into herds of different sizes, from ten to a hundred, according as 

 » their fears or accident induce them to unite or separate. 



The females being at this time more lean and active, usually lead 

 the van. The haunches of the males are now covered to the depth 

 of two inches or more with fat which is beginning to get red and 

 high flavoured, and is considered a sure indication of the commence- 

 ment of the rutting season. Their horns, which in the middle of 

 August were yet tender, have now attained their proper size, and 

 are beginning to lose their hairy covering which hangs from them in 

 ragged filaments. The horns of the rein-deer vary, not only with 

 its sex and age, but are otherwise so uncertain in their growth, that 



