ate enough to find a couple of canoes at Esquimaux Bay,
sufficiently large to admit of conveying an outfit to the interior,
and equally fortunate to find Mr. Davis, the gentleman in charge of
the district, possessed the will and ability to promote my views. All
my arrangements at this place being completed, I set off on my return,
and was happy to find, on my arrival at the outpost, that the outfit
was rendered in safety, not the slightest accident having occurred on
the way.

I arrived at Fort Chimo in the beginning of October. The dreary winter
setting in immediately, we commenced the usual course of vegetative
existence; and I consider it as unnecessary as it would be
uninteresting to say anything further concerning it than that this
season passed without our being subjected to such grievous privation
as during the last. The greater part of the people being distributed
among the outposts, reduced our expenditure of provisions so much,
that I felt I had nothing now to fear on the score of starvation; and
the precautions I had taken the preceding winter enabled us not only
to indulge occasionally in the _luxuries_ of bread-and-butter, but
also to contemplate the possibility of the non-arrival of the ship
without much anxiety.

1842.--On the opening of the navigation I again set out for Esquimaux
Bay, where I found letters from the Secretary, conveying the welcome
intelligence that my request for permission to visit Britain had been
granted, and that the Directors, agreeably to my recommendation, had
determined on abandoning Ungava, the ship being ordered round this
season to convey the people and property to Esquimaux Bay.

CHAPTER VIII.

GENERAL REMARKS.

CLIMATE OF UNGAVA--AURORA BOREALIS--SOIL--VEGETABLE
PRODUCTIONS--ANIMALS--BIRDS--FISH--GEOLOGICAL FEATURES.

It need scarcely be observed that, in so high a latitude as that
of Ungava, the climate presents the extremes of heat and cold; the
moderate temperature of spring and autumn is unknown, the rigour of
winter being immediately succeeded by the intense heat of summer, and
_vice versa_.

On the 12th of June, 1840, the thermometer was observed to rise from
10 deg. below zero to 76 deg. in the shade, the sky clear and the weather
calm; this was, in fact, the first day of summer. For ten days
previously the thermometer ranged from 15 deg. below zero to 32 deg. above,
and the weather was as boisterous as in the month of January, snowing
and b