y laughter of Mr. Hood and
myself. The old man smiled in his turn and, as he always seemed proud of
the familiar way in which we were accustomed to joke with him, we thought
no more upon the subject. But he unfortunately mentioned the circumstance
to his wife who imagined in consequence that the drug was not productive
of its usual good effects and they immediately came to the conclusion
that some bad medicine had been intentionally given to them. The distress
produced by this idea was in proportion to their former faith in the
potency of the remedy and the night was spent in singing and groaning.
Next morning the whole family were crying in concert and it was not until
the evening of the second day that we succeeded in pacifying them. The
old woman began to feel better and her faith in the medicine was renewed.

While speaking of this family I may remark that the daughter, whom we
designated Green-stockings from her dress, is considered by her tribe to
be a great beauty. Mr. Hood drew an accurate portrait of her although her
mother was averse to her sitting for it. She was afraid she said that her
daughter's likeness would induce the Great Chief who resided in England
to send for the original. The young lady however was undeterred by any
such fear. She has already been an object of contest between her
countrymen and, although under sixteen years of age, has belonged
successively to two husbands and would probably have been the wife of
many more if her mother had not required her services as a nurse.

The weather during this month was the coldest we experienced during our
residence in America. The thermometer sank on one occasion to 57 degrees
below zero and never rose beyond 6 degrees above it; the mean for the
month was minus 29.7 degrees. During these intense colds however the
atmosphere was generally calm and the woodcutters and others went about
their ordinary occupations without using any extraordinary precautions
yet without feeling any bad effects. They had their reindeer shirts on,
leathern mittens lined with blankets, and furred caps; but none of them
used any defence for the face, or needed any. Indeed we have already
mentioned that the heat is abstracted most rapidly from the body during
strong breezes and most of those who have perished from cold in this
country have fallen a sacrifice to their being overtaken on a lake or
other unsheltered place by a storm of wind. The intense colds were
however detrimenta