nly tend to
render the scene more desolate. No birds fly about to enliven the
traveller; and the only sound that meets the ear, besides the low
sighing of the cold, cold wind, is the crashing of immense fields of
ice, as they meet and war in the eddies of opposing currents.
Fortunately, however, there was no ice near the shore, and we met with
little interruption on the way. The priest bore the cold like a stoic;
and my friend Jordan, being made, metaphorically speaking, of iron,
treated it with the contemptuous indifference that might be expected
from such metal.

In the evening we arrived at Esquimain River, where we took up our
quarters in a small log-hut belonging to a poor seal-fisher, whose
family, and a few men who attended a sawmill a short distance off, were
the only inhabitants of this little hamlet. Here we remained all night,
and prepared our snow-shoes for the morrow, as the boat was there to
leave us and return to Tadousac. The night was calm and frosty, and
everything gave promise of fine weather for our journey. But who can
tell what an hour will bring forth? Before morning the weather became
milder, and soon it began to _thaw_. A fine warm day, with a bright
sun, be it known, is one of the most dreadful calamities that can befall
a snowshoe traveller, as the snow then becomes soft and sticky, thereby
drenching the feet and snow-shoes, which become painfully heavy from the
quantity of snow which sticks to and falls upon them. In cold frosty
weather the snow is dry, crisp, and fine, so that it falls through the
network of the snow-shoe without leaving a feather's weight behind,
while the feet are dry and warm; but a thaw!--oh! it is useless
attempting to recapitulate the miseries attending a thaw; my next day's
experience will show what it is.

Early on the following morning I jumped from my bed on the floor of the
hut, and proceeded to equip myself for the march. The apartment in
which I had passed the night presented a curious appearance. It
measured about sixteen feet by twelve, and the greater part of this
space was occupied by two beds, on which lay, in every imaginable
position, the different members of the half-breed family to whom
the mansion belonged. In the centre of the room stood a
coarsely-constructed deal table, on which lay in confusion the remains
of the preceding night's supper. On the right of this, a large
gaudily-painted Yankee clock graced the wall, and stared down upon