PROSTRATION. 
231 
was covered with blocks of stone which it had required 
the labor of three men to adjust; but the extraordi¬ 
nary strength of the bear had enabled him to force 
aside the heaviest rocks, and his pawing had broken 
the iron casks which held our pemmican literally into 
chips. Our alcohol-cask, which it had cost me a sepa¬ 
rate and special journey in the late fall to deposit, was 
so completely destroyed that we could not find a stave 
of it. 
« Off Cape James Kent, about eight miles from ‘ Sunny 
Gorge,’ while taking an observation for latitude, I was 
myself seized with a sudden pain and fainted. My 
limbs became rigid, and certain obscure tetanoid symp¬ 
toms of our late winter’s enemy disclosed themselves. 
In this condition I was unable to make more than nine 
miles a day. I was strapped upon the sledge, and the 
march continued as usual; but my powers diminished 
so rapidly that I could not resist even the otherwise 
comfortable temperature of 5° below zero. My left foot 
becoming frozen up to the metatarsal joint, caused a 
