I began to imagine that my acclimatization
had not been complete, until I noticed that the Inuits who came on
board complained of the cold as much as we did. Indeed, I believe that
one feels the cold in an Arctic summer much more disagreeably than in
the winter. The low temperature in the strait is in all probability
attributable to the ice that is constantly there, either local ice or
the pack brought down from Fox Channel by the wind and current. The
great Grinnell Glacier, on Meta Incognita, which Captain Hall estimated
to be one hundred miles in extent, must also have considerable effect
upon the climate. As we passed down toward Resolution Island we could
see this great sea of ice from the deck of the vessel in all its solemn
grandeur, surrounded by lofty peaks clad in their ever-enduring mantles
of snow.
I did not go on shore while our vessel lay at anchor in North Bay, for
I had no anxiety to encounter the mosquitoes which abound there, though
not to the extent that makes life such a burden as upon the eastern
shores of Hudson's Bay. While our water-casks were being filled at
Marble Island in the early part of August, Captain Baker and I went in
one of the ship's boats to the main-land, about fifteen miles to the
south-west, to secure a lot of musk-ox skins and other articles of
trade at a Kinnepatooan encampment there, and though we spent but one
night on shore, I never before endured such torture from so small a
cause as the mosquitoes occasioned us.
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