ores of Hudson's Bay, and the doctor could confirm it at New
America; Johnson took care not to let loose the dogs of the sledge,
who might have been destroyed in that way. As for Duke, he had seen
too many of them, and he was too wise to be caught in any such way.

During a fortnight they hunted a great deal; fresh food was abundant;
they shot partridges, ptarmigans, and snow-birds, which were delicious
eating. The hunters did not go far from Fort Providence. In fact,
small game could almost be killed with a stick; and it gave much
animation to the silent shores of Victoria Bay,--an unaccustomed sight
which delighted their eyes.

The fortnight succeeding the great defeat of the bears was taken up
with different occupations. The thaw advanced steadily; the
thermometer rose to 32 degrees, and torrents began to roar in the
ravines, and thousands of cataracts fell down the declivities. The
doctor cleared an acre of ground and sowed in it cresses, sorrel, and
cochlearia, which are excellent remedies for the scurvy; the little
greenish leaves were peeping above the ground when, with incredible
rapidity, the cold again seized everything.

In a single night, with a violent north-wind, the thermometer fell
forty degrees, to -8 degrees. Everything was frozen; birds,
quadrupeds, and seals disappeared as if by magic; the holes for the
seals were closed, the crevasses disappeared, the ice became as hard
as granite, and the waterfalls hung like long crystal pendants.

It was a total change to the eye; it took place in the night of May
11-12. And when Bell the next morning put his nose out of doors into
this sharp frost, he nearly left it there.

"O, this polar climate!" cried the doctor, a little disappointed;
"that's the way it goes! Well, I shall have to begin sowing again."

[Illustration]

Hatteras took things less philosophically, so eager was he to renew
his explorations. But he had to resign himself.

"Will this cold weather last long?" asked Johnson.

"No, my friend, no," answered Clawbonny; "it's the last touch of
winter we shall have! You know it's at home here, and we can't drive
it away against its will."

"It defends itself well," said Bell, rubbing his face.

"Yes, but I ought to have expected it," said the doctor; "and I should
not have thrown the seed away so stupidly, especially since I might
have started them near the kitchen stove."

"What!" asked Altamont, "could you have foreseen this change of
wea