With the Colymbus arcticus but differing from it in the
arrangement of the white spots on its plumage, and in having a
yellowish-white bill. This bird was occasionally caught in our
fishing-nets.
The thermometer during the month of October at Fort Enterprise never rose
above 37 degrees or fell below 5 degrees; the mean temperature for the
month was 23 degrees.
In the beginning of October a party had been sent to the westward to
search for birch to make snowshoe frames, and the Indian women were
afterwards employed in netting the shoes and preparing leather for winter
clothing to the men. Robes of reindeer skins were also obtained from the
Indians and issued to the men who were to travel as they were not only a
great deal lighter than blankets but also much warmer and altogether
better adapted for a winter in this climate. They are however unfit for
summer use as the least moisture causes the skin to spoil and lose its
hair. It requires the skins of seven deer to make one robe. The finest
are made of the skins of young fawns.
The fishing having failed as the weather became more severe was given up
on the 5th. It had procured us about one thousand two hundred white-fish,
from two to three pounds each. There are two other species of Coregoni in
Winter Lake, Back's grayling and the round-fish; and a few trout, pike,
methye, and red carp were also occasionally obtained from the nets. It
may be worthy of notice here that the fish froze as they were taken out
of the nets, in a short time became a solid mass of ice and, by a blow or
two of the hatchet, were easily split open, when the intestines might be
removed in one lump. If in this completely frozen state they were thawed
before the fire they recovered their animation. This was particularly the
case with the carp and we had occasion to observe it repeatedly as Dr.
Richardson occupied himself with examining the structure of the different
species of fish and was always in the winter under the necessity of
thawing them before he could cut them. We have seen a carp recover so far
as to leap about with much vigour after it had been frozen for thirty-six
hours.
From the 12th to the 16th we had fine and, for the season, warm weather;
and the deer, which had not been seen since the 26th of October,
reappeared in the neighbourhood of the house, to the surprise of the
Indians who attributed their return to the barren grounds to the unusual
mildness of the season. On this occasion, by melting some of our pewter
cups, we managed to furnish five balls to each of the hunters, but they
were all expended unsuccessfully, except by Akaitcho who killed two deer.
