Adventure and adventurers > Hudson Bay, or, Everyday life in the wilds of North America

184
A WINTER GALE.
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 avail¬
ing 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 pre¬
cincts 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,