OF THE POLAR SEA. 



299 



joined in the sport, and the numerous overturns we experienced 

 seemed to form no small share of the amusement of the party, but 

 on one occasion, when I had been thrown from my seat and almost 

 buried in the snow, a fat Indian woman drove her sledge over me, 

 and sprained my knee severely. 



On the 18th at eight in the evening a beautiful halo appeared 

 round the sun when it was about 8° high. The colours were pris- 

 matic, and very bright, the red next the sun. 



On the 21st the ice in the river was measured, and found to be 

 five feet thick, and on the same day in setting the nets in Round 

 Rock Lake, the ice there was ascertained to be six feet and a half 

 thick, the water being six fathoms deep. The stomachs of some 

 fish were at this time opened by Dr. Richardson, and found filled 

 with insects which appear to exist in abundance under the ice 

 during the winter. 



On the 22nd a moose-deer was killed at the distance of forty-five 

 miles, and Saint Germain went for it with a dog sledge, and returned 

 with unusual expedition on the morning of the third day. This 

 supply was soon exhausted, and we passed the 27th without eating, 

 and had a prospect of fasting a day or two longer, when old Kes- 

 karrah entered with the unexpected intelligence of his having killed 

 a deer. It was divided betwixt our own family and the Indians, 

 and during the night a seasonable supply arrived from Akaitcho. 

 Augustus returned with the men who brought it, much pleased 

 with the attention he had received from the Indians during his visit 

 to Akaitcho. 



Next day Mr. Wentzel set out with every man that we could 

 spare from the fort, for the purpose of bringing meat from the In- 

 dians as fast as it could be procured. Dr. Richardson followed them 

 two days afterwards to collect specimens of the rocks in that part of 

 the country. On the same day the two Belangers arrived from 

 Fort Providence, having been only five days on the march from thence. 



2 Q 2 



