till the thermometer frequently exhibited from 85° to 100° in the
shade. This intense heat may, no doubt, be owing in a considerable
degree to the reflection of the solar rays from the rocky surface of
the country, a great part of which is destitute of vegetation. When
the wind blows from the sea the atmosphere is so much cooled as to
become disagreeable. These vicissitudes are frequently experienced
during summer, and are probably caused by the sea's being always
encumbered by ice. It is remarkable that the severest cold in this
quarter is invariably accompanied by stormy weather; whereas, in the
interior of the continent, severe cold always produces calm.

The winter may be said to commence in October; by the end of this
month the ground is covered with snow, and the rivers and smaller
lakes are frozen over; the actions of the tide, however, and the
strength of the current, often keep Ungava River open till the month
of January. At this period I have neither seen, read, nor heard of
any locality under heaven that can offer a more cheerless abode to
civilized man than Ungava. The rumbling noise created by the ice, when
driven to and fro by the force of the tide, continually stuns the ear;
while the light of heaven is hidden by the fog that hangs in the air,
shrouding everything in the gloom of a dark twilight. If Pluto should
leave his own gloomy mansion _in tenebris tartari_, he might take up
his abode here, and gain or lose but little by the exchange.

"The parched ground burns frore, and cold performs
The effect of fire."--MILTON.

When the river sets fast, the beauties of the winter scene are
disclosed--one continuous surface of glaring snow, with here and there
a clump of dwarf pine, of the bald summits of barren hills, from