On the--of June, 1843, I landed the second time on the wharf of York
Fort, and betook myself to Bachelors' Hall, where Mr Grave, whom I met
by the way, told me to take up my quarters. As I approached the door of
the well-remembered house, the most tremendous uproar that ever was
heard proceeded from within its dingy walls; so I jumped the paling that
stood in front of the windows, and took a peep at the interior before
introducing myself.
The scene that met my eye was ludicrous in the extreme. Mounted on a
chair, behind a bedroom door, stood my friend Crusty, with a large pail
of water in his arms, which he raised cautiously to the top of the door,
for the purpose of tilting it over upon two fellow-clerks who stood
below, engaged in a wrestling match, little dreaming of the cataract
that was soon to fall on their devoted heads; at the door of a room
opposite stood the doctor, grinning from ear to ear at the thought of
sending a thick stream of water in Crusty's face from a large syringe
which he held in his hands; while near the stove sat the jolly skipper,
looking as grave as possible under the circumstances.
The practical joke was just approaching to a climax when I looked in.
The combatants neared the door behind which Crusty was ensconced. The
pail was raised, and the syringe pointed, when the hall door opened, and
Mr Grave walked in! The sudden change that ensued could not have been
more rapidly effected had Mr Grave been a magician. The doctor thrust
the syringe into his pocket, into which a great deal of the water
escaped and dripped from the skirts of his coat as he walked slowly
across the room and began to examine, with a wonderful degree of
earnestness, the edge of an amputating knife that lay upon his
dressing-table. The two wrestlers sprang with one accord into their own
room, where they hid their flushed faces behind the door. Certain
smothered sounds near the stove proclaimed the skipper to be revelling
in an excruciating fit of suppressed laughter; while poor Crusty, who
slipped his foot in rapidly descending from his chair, lay sprawling in
an ocean of water, which he had upset upon himself in his fall.
Mr Grave merely went to Mr Wilson's room to ask a few questions, and
then departed as if he had seen nothing; but a peculiar twist in the
corners of his mouth, and a comical twinkle in his eye, showed that,
although he said nothing, he had a pretty good guess that his "young
men" had been engaged in mischief!
Such were the companions to whom I introduced myself shortly after; and,
while they went off to the office, I amused myself in looking round the
rooms in which I was to spend the approaching winter.
The house was only one story high, and the greater part of the interior
formed a large hall, from which several doors led into the sleeping
apartments of the clerks. The whole was built of wood; and few houses
could be found wherein so little attention was paid to ornament or
luxury. The walls were originally painted white, but this, from long
exposure to the influence of a large stove, had changed to a dirty
yellow. No carpet covered the floor; nevertheless, its yellow planks
had a cheerful appearance; and gazing at the numerous knots with which
it was covered often afforded me a dreamy kind of amusement when I had
nothing better to do. A large oblong iron box, on four crooked legs,
with a funnel running from it through the roof, stood exactly in the
middle of the room; this was a stove, but the empty wood-box in the
corner showed that its services were not required at that time. And
truly they were not; for it was the height of summer, and the whole room
was filled with mosquitoes and bull-dog flies, which kept up a perpetual
hum night and day. The only furniture that graced the room consisted of
two small unpainted deal tables without tablecloths, five whole wooden
chairs, and a broken one--which latter, being light and handy, was
occasionally used as a missile by the young men when they happened to
quarrel. Several guns and fishing-rods stood in the corners of the
hall, but their dirty appearance proclaimed that sporting, at that time,
was not the order of the day. The tables were covered with a
miscellaneous collection of articles; and from a number of pipes
reposing on little odoriferous heaps of cut tobacco, I inferred that my
future companions were great smokers. Two or three books, a pair of
broken foils, a battered mask, and several surgical instruments, over
which a huge mortar and pestle presided, completed the catalogue.
The different sleeping apartments around were not only interesting to
contemplate, but also extremely characteristic of the pursuits of their
different tenants. The first I entered was very small--just large
enough to contain a bed, a table, and a chest, leaving little room for
the occupant to move about in; and yet, from the appearance of things,
he did move about in it to some purpose, as the table was strewn with a
number of saws, files, bits of ivory and wood, and in a corner a small
vice held the head of a cane in its iron jaws. These were mixed with a
number of Indian account-books and an inkstand, so that I concluded I
had stumbled on the bedroom of my friend Mr Wilson, the postmaster.
The quadrant-case and sea-chest in the next room proved it to be the
skipper's, without the additional testimony of the oiled-cloth coat and
sou'-wester hanging from a peg in the wall.
The doctor's room was filled with dreadful-looking instruments,
suggestive of operations, amputations, bleeding wounds, and human agony;
while the accountant's was equally characterised by methodical neatness,
and the junior clerks' by utter and chaotic confusion. None of these
bedrooms were carpeted; none of them boasted of a chair--the trunks and
boxes of the persons to whom they belonged answering instead; and none
of the beds were graced with curtains. Notwithstanding this emptiness,
however, they had a somewhat furnished appearance, from the number of
greatcoats, leather capotes, fur caps, worsted sashes, guns, rifles,
shot-belts, snow-shoes, and powder-horns with which the walls were
profusely decorated. The ceilings of the rooms, moreover, were very
low--so much that by standing on tiptoe I could touch them with my hand;
and the window in each was only about three feet high by two and a half
broad, so that, upon the whole, the house was rather snug than
otherwise.
Such was the habitation in which I dwelt; such were the companions with
whom I associated at York Factory.
As the season advanced the days became shorter, the nights more frosty,
and soon a few flakes of snow fell, indicating the approach of winter.
About the beginning of October the cold, damp, snowy weather that
usually precedes winter set in; and shortly afterwards Hayes River was
full of drifting ice, and the whole country covered with snow. A week
or so after this the river was completely frozen over; and Hudson Bay
itself, as far as the eye could reach, was covered with a coat of ice.
We now settled down into our winter habits. Double windows were fitted
in, and double doors also. Extra blankets were put upon the beds; the
iron stove kept constantly alight; and, in fact, every preparation was
made to mitigate the severity of the winter.
The water froze every night in our basins, although the stove was kept
at nearly a red heat all day, and pretty warm all night; and our
out-of-door costume was changed from jackets and shooting-coats to thick
leather capotes, fur caps, duffle socks, and moccasins.
Soon after this, white partridges showed themselves; and one fine clear,
frosty morning, after breakfast, I made my first essay to kill some, in
company with my fellow-clerk and room-mate Crusty, and the worthy
skipper.
The manner of dressing ourselves to resist the cold was curious. I will
describe Crusty, as a type of the rest. After donning a pair of
deer-skin trousers, he proceeded to put on three pair of blanket socks,
and over these a pair of moose-skin moccasins. Then a pair of blue
cloth leggins were hauled over his trousers, partly to keep the snow
from sticking to them, and partly for warmth. After this he put on a
leather capote edged with fur. This coat was very warm, being lined
with flannel, and overlapped very much in front. It was fastened with a
scarlet worsted belt round the waist, and with a loop at the throat. A
pair of thick mittens made of deer-skin hung round his shoulders by a
worsted cord; and his neck was wrapped in a huge shawl, above whose
mighty folds his good-humoured visage beamed like the sun on the edge of
a fog-bank. A fur cap with ear-pieces completed his costume. Having
finished his toilet, and tucked a pair of snow-shoes, five feet long,
under one arm, and a double-barrelled fowling-piece under the other,
Crusty waxed extremely impatient, and proceeded systematically to
aggravate the unfortunate skipper (who was always very slow, poor man,
except on board ship), addressing sundry remarks to the stove upon the
slowness of seafaring men in general, and skippers in particular. In a
few minutes the skipper appeared in a similar costume, with a
monstrously long gun over his shoulder, and under his arm a pair of
snow-shoes gaudily painted by himself; which snow-shoes he used to
admire amazingly, and often gave it as his opinion that they were
"slap-up, tossed-off-to-the-nines" snow-shoes!
In this guise, then, we departed on our ramble. The sun shone brightly
in the cold blue sky, giving a warm appearance to the scene, although no
sensible warmth proceeded from it, so cold was the air. Countless
millions of icy particles covered every bush and tree, glittering
tremulously in its rays like diamonds--psha! that hackneyed simile:
diamonds of the purest water never shone like these evanescent little
gems of nature. The air was biting cold, obliging us to walk briskly
along to keep our blood in circulation; and the breath flew thick and
white from our mouths and nostrils, like clouds of steam, and,
condensing on our hair and the breasts of our coats, gave us the
appearance of being powdered with fine snow. Crusty's red countenance
assumed a redder hue by contrast, and he cut a very comical figure when
his bushy whiskers changed from their natural auburn hue to a pure
white, under the influence of this icy covering. The skipper, who all
this while had been floundering slowly among the deep snow, through
which his short legs were but ill calculated to carry him, suddenly
wheeled round, and presented to our view the phenomenon of a very red,
warm face, and an extremely livid cold nose thereunto affixed. We
instantly apprised him of the fact that his nose was frozen, which he
would scarcely believe for some time; however, he was soon convinced,
and after a few minutes' hard rubbing it was restored to its usual
temperature.
We had hitherto been walking through the thick woods near the river's
bank; but finding no white partridges there, we stretched out into the
frozen swamps, which now presented large fields and plains of compact
snow, studded here and there with clumps and thickets of willows. Among
these we soon discovered fresh tracks of birds in the snow, whereat the
skipper became excited (the sport being quite new to him), and expressed
his belief, in a hoarse whisper, that they were not far off. He even
went the length of endeavouring to walk on tiptoe, but being unable,
from the weight of his snow-shoes, to accomplish this, he only tripped
himself, and falling with a stunning crash through a large dried-up
bush, buried his head, shoulders, and gun in the snow. Whir-r-r! went
the alarmed birds--crack! bang! went Crusty's gun, and down came two
partridges; while the unfortunate skipper, scarce taking time to clear
his eyes from snow, in his anxiety to get a shot, started up, aimed at
the birds, and blew the top of a willow, which stood a couple of feet
before him, into a thousand atoms. The partridges were very tame, and
only flew to a neighbouring clump of bushes, where they alighted.
Meanwhile Crusty picked up his birds, and while reloading his gun
complimented the skipper upon the beautiful manner in which he
_pointed_. To this he answered not, but raising his gun, let drive at a
solitary bird which, either from fear or astonishment, had remained
behind the rest, and escaped detection until now, owing to its
resemblance to the surrounding snow. He fortunately succeeded in
hitting this time, and bagged it with great exultation. Our next essay
was even more successful. The skipper fired at one which he saw sitting
near him, killed it,--and also two more which he had not seen, but which
had happened to be in a line with the shot; and Crusty and I killed a
brace each when they took wing.
During the whole day we wandered about the woods, sometimes killing a
few ptarmigan, and occasionally a kind of grouse, which are called by
the people of the country wood-partridges. Whilst sauntering slowly
along in the afternoon, a rabbit darted across our path; the skipper
fired at it without even putting the gun to his shoulder, and to his
utter astonishment killed it. After this we turned to retrace our
steps, thinking that, as our game bags were pretty nearly full, we had
done enough for one day. Our sport was not done, however; we came
suddenly upon a large flock of ptarmigan, so tame that they would not
fly, but merely ran from us a little way at the noise of each shot. The
firing that now commenced was quite terrific. Crusty fired till both
barrels of his gun were stopped up; the skipper fired till his powder
and shot were done; and I fired till--_I skinned my tongue_! Lest any
one should feel surprised at the last statement, I may as well explain
_how_ this happened. The cold had become so intense, and my hands so
benumbed with loading, that the thumb at last obstinately refused to
open the spring of my powder-flask. A partridge was sitting impudently
before me, so that, in the fear of losing the shot, I thought of trying
to open it with my teeth. In the execution of this plan, I put the
brass handle to my mouth, and my tongue happening to come in contact
with it, stuck fast thereto--or, in other words, was frozen to it. Upon
discovering this, I instantly pulled the flask away, and with it a piece
of skin about the size of a sixpence. Having achieved this little feat,
we once more bent our steps homeward.
During our walk the day had darkened, and the sky insensibly become
overcast. Solitary flakes of snow fell here and there around us, and a
low moaning sound, as of distant wind, came mournfully down through the
sombre trees, and, eddying round their trunks in little gusts, gently
moved the branches, and died away in the distance. With an uneasy
glance at these undoubted signs of an approaching storm, we hastened
towards the fort as fast as our loads permitted us, but had little hope
of reaching it before the first burst of the gale. Nature had laid
aside her sparkling jewels, and was now dressed in her simple robe of
white. Dark leaden clouds rose on the northern horizon, and the distant
howling of the cold, cold wind struck mournfully on our ears, as it
rushed fresh and bitterly piercing from the Arctic seas, tearing madly
over the frozen plains, and driving clouds of hail and snow before it.
Whew! how it dashed along--scouring wildly over the ground, as if
maddened by the slight resistance offered to it by the swaying bushes,
and hurrying impetuously forward to seek a more worthy object on which
to spend its bitter fury! Whew! how it curled around our limbs,
catching up mountains of snow into the air, and dashing them into
impalpable dust against our wretched faces. Oh! it was bitterly,
bitterly cold. Notwithstanding our thick wrappings, we felt as if
clothed in gauze; while our faces seemed to collapse and wrinkle up as
we turned them from the wind and hid them in our mittens. One or two
flocks of ptarmigan, scared by the storm, flew swiftly past us, and
sought shelter in the neighbouring forest. We quickly followed their
example, and availing ourselves of the partial shelter of the trees,
made the best of our way back to the fort, where we arrived just as it
was getting dark, and entered the warm precincts of Bachelors' Hall like
three animated marble statues, so completely were we covered from head
to foot with snow.
It was curious to observe the change that took place in the appearance
of our guns after we entered the warm room. The barrels, and every bit
of metal upon them, instantly became white, like ground glass! This
phenomenon was caused by the condensation and freezing of the moist
atmosphere of the room upon the cold iron. Any piece of metal, when
brought suddenly out of such intense cold into a warm room, will in this
way become covered with a pure white coating of hoar-frost. It does not
remain long in this state, however, as the warmth of the room soon heats
the metal and melts the ice. Thus, in about ten minutes our guns
assumed three different appearances: when we entered the house, they
were clear, polished, and dry; in five minutes they were white as snow;
and in five more, dripping wet!
On the following morning a small party of Indians arrived with furs, and
Mr Wilson went with them to the trading-room, whither I accompanied
him.
The trading-room--or, as it is frequently called, the Indian-shop--was
much like what is called a store in the United States. It contained
every imaginable commodity likely to be needed by Indians. On various
shelves were piled bales of cloth of all colours, capotes, blankets,
caps, etcetera; and in smaller divisions were placed files,
scalping-knives, gun-screws, flints, balls of twine, fire-steels,
canoe-awls, and glass beads of all colours, sizes, and descriptions.
Drawers in the counter contained needles, pins, scissors, thimbles,
fish-hooks, and vermilion for painting canoes and faces. The floor was
strewn with a variety of copper and tin kettles, from half a pint to a
gallon; and on a stand in the furthest corner of the room stood about a
dozen trading guns, and beside them a keg of powder and a box of shot.
Upon our entrance into this room trade began. First of all, an old
Indian laid a pack of furs upon the counter, which Mr Wilson counted
and valued. Having done this, he marked the amount opposite the old
man's name in his "Indian book," and then handed him a number of small
pieces of wood. The use of these pieces of wood is explained in the
third chapter. The Indian then began to look about him, opening his
eyes gradually, as he endeavoured to find out which of the many things
before him he would like to have. Sympathising with his eyes, his mouth
slowly opened also; and having remained in this state for some time, the
former looked at Mr Wilson, and the latter pronounced _ahcoup_
(blanket). Having received the blanket, he paid the requisite number of
bits of wood for it, and became abstracted again. In this way he bought
a gun, several yards of cloth, a few beads, etcetera, till all his
sticks were gone, and he made way for another. The Indians were
uncommonly slow, however, and Mr Wilson and I returned to the house in
a couple of hours, with very cold toes and fingers, and exceedingly blue
noses.
During winter we breakfasted usually at nine o'clock; then sat down to
the desk till one, when we dined. After dinner we resumed our pens till
six, when we had tea; and then wrote again till eight; after which we
either amused ourselves with books (of which we had a few), kicked up a
row, or, putting on our snow-shoes, went off to pay a moonlight visit to
our traps. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, however, we did no work, and
generally spent these days in shooting.
It is only at the few principal establishments of the Company, where the
accounts of the country are collected annually, to be forwarded to the
Hudson Bay House in London, that so much writing is necessary.
As the Christmas holidays approached, we prepared for the amusements of
that joyous season. On the morning before Christmas, a gentleman, who
had spent the first part of the winter all alone at his outpost, arrived
to pass the holidays at York Factory. We were greatly delighted to have
a new face to look at, having seen no one but ourselves since the ship
left for England, nearly four months before.
Our visitor had travelled in a dog cariole. This machine is very
narrow, just broad enough to admit one person. It is a wooden frame
covered with deer-skin parchment, painted gaudily, and is generally
drawn by four Esquimaux dogs [see note 3]. Dogs are invaluable in the
Arctic regions, where horses are utterly useless, owing to the depth of
snow which covers the earth for so large a portion of the year. The
comparatively light weight of the dogs enables them to walk without
sinking much; and even when the snow is so soft as to be incapable of
supporting them, they are still able to sprawl along more easily than
any other species of quadruped could do. Four are usually attached to a
sledge, which they haul with great vigour; being followed by a driver on
snow-shoes, whose severe lash is brought to bear so powerfully on the
backs of the poor animals, should any of them be observed to slacken
their pace, that they are continually regarding him with deprecatory
glances as they run along. Should the lash give a flourish, there is
generally a short yelp from the pack; and should it descend amongst them
with a vigorous crack, the vociferous yelling that results is perfectly
terrific. These drivers are sometimes very cruel; and when a pack of
dogs have had a fight, and got their traces hopelessly ravelled (as is
often the case), they have been known to fall on their knees in their
passion, seize one of the poor dogs by the nose with their teeth, and
almost bite it off. Dogs are also used for dragging carioles, which
vehicles are used by gentlemen in the Company's service who are either
too old or too lazy to walk on snow-shoes. The cariole is in form not
unlike a slipper bath, both in shape and size. It is lined with buffalo
robes, in the midst of a bundle of which the occupant reclines
luxuriously, while the dogs drag him slowly through the soft snow, and
among the trees and bushes of the forest, or scamper with him over the
hard-beaten surface of a lake or river; while the machine is prevented
from capsizing by a _voyageur_ who walks behind on snow-shoes, holding
on to a line attached to the back part of the cariole. The weather
during winter is so cold that it is often a matter of the greatest
difficulty for the traveller to keep his toes from freezing, despite the
buffalo robes; and sometimes, when the dogs start fresh in the morning,
with a good breakfast, a bright, clear, frosty day, and a long expanse
of comparatively open country before them, where the snow from exposure
has become quite hard, away they go with a loud yelp, upsetting the
driver in the bolt, who rises to heap undeserved and very improper
epithets upon the poor brutes, who, careering over the ground at the
rate of eleven miles an hour, swing the miserable cariole over the snow,
tear it through the bushes, bang it first on one side, then on the
other, against stumps and trees, yelling all the while, partly with
frantic glee at the thought of having bolted, and partly with fearful
anticipation of the tremendous welting that is to come; until at last
the cariole gets jammed hard and fast among the trees of the forest, or
plunges down the steep bank of a river head over heels till they reach
the foot--a horrible and struggling compound of dogs, traveller, traces,
parchment, buffalo robes, blankets, and snow!
Christmas morning dawned, and I opened my eyes to behold the sun
flashing brightly on the window, in its endeavours to make a forcible
entry into my room, through the thick hoar-frost which covered the
panes. Presently I became aware of a gentle breathing near me, and,
turning my eyes slowly round, I beheld my companion Crusty standing on
tiptoe, with a tremendous grin on his countenance, and a huge pillow in
his hands, which was in the very act of descending upon my devoted head.
To collapse into the smallest possible compass, and present the most
invulnerable part of my body to the blow, was the work of an instant,
when down came the pillow, bang! "Hooroo! hurroo! hurroo! a merry
Christmas to you, you rascal!" shouted Crusty. Bang! bang! went the
pillow. "Turn out of that, you lazy lump of plethoric somnolescence,"
whack!--and, twirling the ill-used pillow round his head, my facetious
friend rushed from the room, to bestow upon the other occupants of the
hall a similar salutation. Upon recovering from the effects of my
pommelling, I sprang from bed and donned my clothes with all speed, and
then went to pay my friend Mr Wilson the compliments of the season. In
passing through the hall for this purpose, I discovered Crusty
struggling in the arms of the skipper, who, having wrested the pillow
from him, was now endeavouring to throttle him partially. I gently shut
and fastened the door of their room, purposing to detain them there till
_very nearly_ too late for breakfast, and then sat down with Mr Wilson
to discuss our intended proceedings during the day. These were--
firstly, that we should go and pay a ceremonious visit to the men;
secondly, that we should breakfast; thirdly, that we should go out to
shoot partridges; fourthly, that we should return to dinner at five; and
fifthly, that we should give a ball in Bachelors' Hall in the evening,
to which were to be invited all the men at the fort, and _all_ the
Indians, men, women, and children, inhabiting the country for thirty
miles round. As the latter, however, did not amount to above twenty, we
did not fear that more would come than our hall was calculated to
accommodate. In pursuance, then, of these resolutions, I cleaned my
gun, freed my prisoners just as the breakfast-bell was ringing, and
shortly afterwards went out to shoot. I will not drag the reader after
me, but merely say that we all returned about dusk, with game-bags full,
and appetites ravenous.
Our Christmas dinner was a good one, in a substantial point of view; and
a very pleasant one, in a social point of view. We ate it in the winter
mess-room; and really (for Hudson Bay) this was quite a snug and highly
decorated apartment. True, there was no carpet on the floor, and the
chairs were home-made; but then the table was mahogany, and the walls
were hung round with several large engravings in bird's-eye maple
frames. The stove, too, was brightly polished with black lead, and the
painting of the room had been executed with a view to striking dumb
those innocent individuals who had spent the greater part of their lives
at outposts, and were, consequently, accustomed to domiciles and
furniture of the simplest and most unornamental description. On the
present grand occasion the mess-room was illuminated by an argand lamp,
and the table covered with a snow-white cloth, whereon reposed a platter
containing a beautiful, fat, plump wild-goose, which had a sort of
come-eat-me-up-quick-else-I'll-melt expression about it that was
painfully delicious. Opposite to this smoked a huge roast of beef, to
procure which one of our most useless draught oxen had been sacrificed.
This, with a dozen of white partridges, and a large piece of salt pork,
composed our dinner. But the greatest rarities on the board were two
large decanters of port wine, and two smaller ones of Madeira. These
were flanked by tumblers and glasses; and truly, upon the whole, our
dinner made a goodly show.
"Come away, gentlemen," said Mr Grave, as we entered the room and
approached the stove where he stood, smiling with that benign expression
of countenance peculiar to stout, good-natured gentlemen at this season,
and at this particular hour. "Your walk must have sharpened your
appetites; sit down, sit down. This way, doctor--sit near me; find a
place, Mr Ballantyne, beside your friend Crusty there; take the foot,
Mr Wilson;" and amid a shower of such phrases we seated ourselves and
began.
At the top of the table sat Mr Grave, indistinctly visible through the
steam that rose from the wild-goose before him. On his right and left
sat the doctor and the accountant; and down from them sat the skipper,
four clerks, and Mr Wilson, whose honest face beamed with philanthropic
smiles at the foot of the table. Loud were the mirth and fun that
reigned on this eventful day within the walls of the highly decorated
room at York Factory. Bland was the expression of Mr Grave's face when
he asked each of the young clerks to drink wine with him in succession;
and great was the confidence which thereby inspired the said clerks,
prompting them to the perpetration of several rash and unparalleled
pieces of presumption--such as drinking wine with each other (an act of
free-will on their part almost unprecedented), and indulging in sundry
sly pieces of covert humour, such as handing the vinegar to each other
when the salt was requested, and becoming profusely apologetic upon
discovering their mistake. But the wildest storm is often succeeded by
the greatest calm, and the most hilarious mirth by the most solemn
gravity. In the midst of our fun Mr Grave proposed a toast. Each
filled a bumper, and silence reigned around while he raised his glass
and said, "Let us drink to absent friends." We each whispered, "Absent
friends," and set our glasses down in silence, while our minds flew back
to the scenes of former days, and we mingled again in spirit with our
dear, dear friends at home. How different the mirth of the loved ones
there, circling round the winter hearth, from that of the _men_ seated
round the Christmas table in the Nor'-West wilderness I question very
much if this toast was ever drunk with a more thorough appreciation of
its melancholy import than upon the present memorable occasion. Our sad
feelings, however, were speedily put to flight, and our gravity routed,
when the skipper, with characteristic modesty, proposed, "The ladies;"
which toast we drank with a hearty good-will, although, indeed, the
former included them, inasmuch as they also were _absent_ friends--the
only one within two hundred and fifty miles of us being Mr Grave's
wife.
What a magical effect ladies have upon the male sex, to be sure!
Although hundreds of miles distant from an unmarried specimen of the
species, upon the mere mention of their name there was instantly a
perceptible alteration for the better in the looks of the whole party.
Mr Wilson unconsciously arranged his hair a little more becomingly, as
if his ladye-love were actually looking at him; and the skipper
afterwards confessed that his heart had bounded suddenly out of his
breast, across the snowy billows of the Atlantic, and come smash down on
the wharf at Plymouth Dock, where he had seen the last wave of Nancy's
checked cotton neckerchief as he left the shores of Old England.
Just as we had reached the above climax, the sound of a fiddle struck
upon our ears, and reminded us that our guests who had been invited to
the ball were ready; so, emptying our glasses, we left the dining-room,
and adjourned to the hall.
Here a scene of the oddest description presented itself. The room was
lit up by means of a number of tallow candles, stuck in tin sconces
round the walls. On benches and chairs sat the Orkneymen and Canadian
half-breeds of the establishment, in their Sunday jackets and capotes;
while here and there the dark visage of an Indian peered out from among
their white ones. But round the stove--which had been removed to one
side to leave space for the dancers--the strangest group was collected.
Squatting down on the floor, in every ungraceful attitude imaginable,
sat about a dozen Indian women, dressed in printed calico gowns, the
chief peculiarity of which was the immense size of the balloon-shaped
sleeves, and the extreme scantiness, both in length and width, of the
skirts. Coloured handkerchiefs covered their heads, and ornamented
moccasins decorated their feet; besides which, each one wore a blanket
in the form of a shawl, which they put off before standing up to dance.
They were chatting and talking to each other with great volubility,
occasionally casting a glance behind them, where at least half a dozen
infants stood bolt upright in their tight-laced cradles. On a chair, in
a corner near the stove, sat a young, good-looking Indian, with a fiddle
of his own making beside him. This was our Paganini; and beside him sat
an Indian boy with a kettle-drum, on which he tapped occasionally, as if
anxious that the ball should begin.
All this flashed upon our eyes; but we had not much time for
contemplating it, as, the moment we entered, the women simultaneously
rose, and coming modestly forward to Mr Wilson, who was the senior of
the party, saluted him, one after another! I had been told that this
was a custom of the _ladies_ on Christmas Day, and was consequently not
quite unprepared to go through the ordeal. But when I looked at the
superhuman ugliness of some of the old ones--when I gazed at the
immense, and in some cases toothless, chasms that were pressed to my
senior's lips, and that gradually, like a hideous nightmare, approached
towards me--and when I reflected that these same mouths might have, in
former days, demolished a few children--my courage forsook me, and I
entertained for a moment the idea of bolting. The doctor seemed to
labour under the same disinclination as myself; for when they advanced
to him, he refused to bend his head, and, being upwards of six feet
high, they of course were obliged to pass him. They looked, however, so
much disappointed at this, and withal so very modest, that I really felt
for them, and prepared to submit to my fate with the best grace
possible. A horrible old hag advanced towards me, the perfect
embodiment of a nightmare, with a fearful grin on her countenance. I
shut my eyes. Suddenly a bright idea flashed across my mind: I stooped
down, with apparent goodwill, to salute her; but just as our lips were
about to meet, I slightly jerked up my head, and she kissed my _chin_.
Oh, happy thought! They were all quite satisfied, and attributed the
accident, no doubt, to their own clumsiness--or to mine!
This ceremony over, we each chose partners, the fiddle struck up, and
the ball began. Scotch reels were the only dances known by the majority
of the guests, so we confined ourselves entirely to them.
The Indian women afforded us a good deal of amusement during the
evening. Of all ungraceful beings, they are the most ungraceful; and of
all accomplishments, dancing is the one in which they shine least.
There is no rapid motion of the feet, no lively expression of the
countenance; but with a slow, regular, up-and-down motion, they stalk
through the figure with extreme gravity. They seemed to enjoy it
amazingly, however, and scarcely allowed the poor fiddler a moment's
rest during the whole evening.
Between eleven and twelve o'clock our two tables were put together, and
spread with several towels; thus forming a pretty respectable
supper-table, which would have been perfect, had not the one part been
three inches higher than the other. On it was placed a huge dish of
cold venison, and a monstrous iron kettle of tea. This, with sugar,
bread, and a lump of salt butter, completed the entertainment to which
the Indians sat down. They enjoyed it very much--at least, so I judged
from the rapid manner in which the viands disappeared, and the incessant
chattering and giggling kept up at intervals. After all were satisfied,
the guests departed in a state of great happiness; particularly the
ladies, who tied up the remnants of their supper in their handkerchiefs,
and carried them away.
Before concluding the description of our Christmas doings, I may as well
mention a circumstance which resulted from the effects of the ball, as
it shows in a curious manner the severity of the climate at York
Factory. In consequence of the breathing of so many people in so small
a room for such a length of time, the walls had become quite damp, and
ere the guests departed moisture was trickling down in many places.
During the night this moisture was frozen, and on rising the following
morning I found, to my astonishment, that Bachelors' Hall was apparently
converted into a palace of crystal. The walls and ceiling were thickly
coated with beautiful minute crystalline flowers, not sticking flat upon
them, but projecting outwards in various directions, thus giving the
whole apartment a cheerful, light appearance, quite indescribable. The
moment our stove was heated, however, the crystals became fluid, and ere
long evaporated, leaving the walls exposed in all their original
dinginess.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Winter passed away; but not slowly, or by degrees. A winter of so long
duration could not be expected to give up its dominion without a
struggle. In October it began, and in November its empire was
established. During December, January, February, March, and April it
reigned unmolested, in steadfast bitterness; enclosing in its icy bands,
and retaining in torpid frigidity, the whole inanimate and vegetable
creation. But in May its powerful enemy, caloric, made a decided attack
upon the empire, and dealt hoary Winter a stunning blow.
About the beginning of April a slight thaw occurred, the first that had
taken place since the commencement of winter; but this was speedily
succeeded by hard frost, which continued till the second week in May,
when thaw set in so steadily that in a few days the appearance of the
country entirely changed.
On the 12th of May, Hayes River, which had been covered for nearly eight
months with a coat of ice upwards of six feet thick, gave way before the
floods occasioned by the melting snow; and all the inmates of the fort
rushed out to the banks upon hearing the news that the river was going.
On reaching the gate, the sublimity of the spectacle that met our gaze
can scarcely be imagined. The noble river, here nearly two miles broad,
was entirely covered with huge blocks and jagged lumps of ice, rolling
and dashing against each other in chaotic confusion, as the swelling
floods heaved them up and swept them with irresistible force towards
Hudson Bay. In one place, where the masses were too closely packed to
admit of violent collision, they ground against each other with a slow
but powerful motion that curled their hard edges up like paper, till the
smaller lumps, unable to bear the pressure, were ground to powder, and
with a loud crash the rest hurried on to renew the struggle elsewhere,
while the ice above, whirling swiftly round in the clear space thus
formed, as if delighted at its sudden release, hurried onwards. In
another place, where it was not so closely packed, a huge lump suddenly
grounded on a shallow; and in a moment the rolling masses, which were
hurrying towards the sea with the velocity of a cataract, were
precipitated against it with a noise like thunder, and the tremendous
pressure from above forcing block upon block with a loud hissing noise,
raised, as if by magic, an icy castle in the air, which, ere its
pinnacles had pointed for a second to the sky, fell with stunning
violence into the boiling flood from whence it rose. In a short time
afterwards the mouth of the river became so full of ice that it stuck
there, and in less than an hour the water rose ten or fifteen feet,
nearly to a level with the top of the bank. In this state it continued
for a week; and then, about the end of May, the whole floated quietly
out to sea, and the cheerful river gurgled along its bed with many a
curling eddy and watery dimple rippling its placid face, as if it smiled
to think of having overcome its powerful enemy, and at length burst its
prison walls.
Although the river was free, many a sign of winter yet remained around
our forest home. The islands in the middle of the stream were covered
with masses of ice, many of which were piled up to a height of twenty or
thirty feet. All along the banks, too, it was strewn thickly; while in
the woods snow still lay in many places several feet deep. In time,
however, these last evidences of the mighty power of winter gave way
before the warm embraces of spring. Bushes and trees began to bud,
gushing rills to flow, frogs to whistle in the swamp, and ducks to sport
upon the river, while the hoarse cry of the wild-goose, the whistling
wings of teal, and all the other sounds and cries of the long-absent
inhabitants of the marshes, gave life and animation to the scene.
Often has nature been described as falling asleep in the arms of winter,
and awaking at the touch of spring; but nowhere is this simile so
strikingly illustrated as in these hyperborean climes, where, for eight
long, silent months, nature falls into a slumber so deep and unbroken
that death seems a fitter simile than sleep, and then bursts into a life
so bright, so joyous, so teeming with animal and vegetable vitality,
and, especially when contrasted with her previous torpidity, so noisy,
that awakening from sleep gives no adequate idea of the change.
Now was the time that our guns were cleaned with peculiar care, and
regarded with a sort of brotherly affection. Not that we despised the
sports of winter, but we infinitely preferred those of spring.
Young Crusty and I were inseparable companions; we had slept in the same
room, hunted over the same ground, and scribbled at the same desk during
the whole winter, and now we purchased a small hunting canoe from an
Indian, for the purpose of roaming about together in spring. Our
excursions were always amusing; and, as a description of one of them may
perhaps prove interesting to the reader, I shall narrate:--