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248 THE FUR COUNTRY. A year ago the first symptoms of the cold season were appearing, even as they were now. The " young ice " was gradually forming along the coast. The lagoon, its waters being quieter than those of the sea, was the first to freeze over. The temperature remained about one or two degrees above freezing point in the day, and fell to three or four degrees below in the night. Hobson again made his men assume their winter garments, the linen vests and furs before described. The condensers were again set up inside the house, the air vessel and air-pumps were cleaned, the traps were set round the palisades on different parts of Cape Bathurst, and Marbre and Sabine got plenty of game, and finally the last touches were given to the inner rooms of the principal house. Although Fort Hope was now about two degrees farther north than at the same time the year before, there was no sensible difference in the state of the temperature. The fact is, the distance between the seventieth and seventy-second parallels is not great enougb. to affect the mean height of the thermometer ; on the con- trary, it really seemed to be less cold than at the beginning of the winter before. Perhaps, however, that was because the colonists were now, to a certain extent, acclimatised. Certainly the winter did not set in so abruptly as last time. The weather was very damp, and, the atmosphere was always charged with vapour, which fell now as rain now as snow. In Lieutenant Hobson's opinion, at least, it was not nearly cold enough. The sea froze all round the island, it is true, but not in a regular or continuous sheet of ice. Large blackish patches here and there showed that the icicles were not thoroughly cemented together. Loud resonant noises were constantly heard, produced by the breaking of the ice-field when the rain melted the imperfectly welded edges of the blocks composing it. There was no rapid accumulation of lump upon lump such as is generally seen in intense cold. Icebergs and hummocks were few and scattered, and no ice-wall as yet shut in the horizon. " This season would have been just the thing for the explorers of the North- West Passage, or the seekers of the North Pole," repeated Sergeant Long again and again, " but it is most unfavourable for us, and very much against our ever getting back to our own land ! " This went on throughout October, and Hobson announced that the mean temperature was no lower than 32° Fahrenheit, and it is