which had hitherto been always supplied to us at our
greatest need. The thermometer varied to-day between 25 deg. and 28 deg.. The
wind blew fresh from the south.

[14] The different kinds of _gyrophora_, are termed indiscriminately
by the voyagers, _tripe de roche_.

On the 18th the atmosphere was hazy, but the day was more pleasant for
walking than usual. The country was level and gravelly, and the snow
very deep. We went for a short time along a deeply-beaten road made by
the rein-deer, which turned suddenly off to the south-west, a direction
so wide of our course that we could not venture upon following it. All
the small lakes were frozen, and we marched across those which lay in
our track. We supped off the _tripe de roche_ which had been gathered
during our halts in the course of the march. Thermometer at six P.M.
32 deg..

Showers of snow fell without intermission through the night, but they
ceased in the morning, and we set out at the usual hour. The men were
very faint from hunger, and marched with difficulty, having to oppose a
fresh breeze, and to wade through snow two feet deep. We gained,
however, ten miles by four o'clock, and then encamped. The canoe was
unfortunately broken by the fall of the person who had it in charge. No
_tripe de roche_ was seen to-day, but in clearing the snow to pitch the
tents we found a quantity of Iceland moss, which was boiled for supper.
This weed, not having been soaked, proved so bitter, that few of the
party could eat more than a few spoonfuls.

Our blankets did not suffice this evening to keep us in tolerable
warmth; the slightest breeze seeming to pierce through our debilitated
frames. The reader will, probably, be desirous to know how we passed our
time in such a comfortless situation: the first operation after
encamping was to thaw our frozen shoes, if a sufficient fire could be
made, and dry ones were put on; each person then wrote his notes of the
daily occurrences, and evening prayers were read; as soon as supper was
prepared it was eaten, generally in the dark, and we went to bed, and
kept up a cheerful conversation until our blankets were thawed by the
heat of our bodies, and we had gathered sufficient warmth to enable us
to fall asleep. On many nights we had not even the luxury of going to
bed in dry clothes, for when the fire was insufficient to dry our shoes,
we durst not venture to pull them off, lest they should freeze so hard
as to be unfit to p