graves covered with the implements used by the deceased. There was also the frame of an oomiak, twenty-four feet long; and a large sledge with side-rails, well mortised, and strongly knit with whalebone, so that our Canadians pronounced it made "comme à Montreal,"—the very superlative of commendation in their opinion.[1] We enjoyed a very cold bath in the sea. The musquitoes had now finally abandoned us, and there can be no stronger proof of the unusual severity of this season along the coast; for Franklin, Beechey, and Richardson complain of the attacks of these insects throughout their Arctic voyages.
The wind having abated, we started on the 11th at 3 a. m. To seaward there were some large icebergs in motion, but we proceeded without interruption till 11, when we landed to breakfast. A fog now enveloped every object, and already had the temperature fallen thirty degrees since issuing from the Mackenzie. We
- ↑ French vanity has lost nothing of its point in the New World. The largest sort of ducks in the interior are called "Canards de France;" English tan-leather shoes, "Souliers François;" the whites in general, "les François," as all Europeans of old were Franks; and one old guide, talking of the place whence the Company's merchandize came, took it for granted that it was from "la vieille France de Londres!"
