On the 6th the weather was clear, with a hard frost, but the sun, which had been a stranger for more than a fortnight, now shone brilliantly. Generally the party walked briskly, protected in some degree from frostbite by an addition to their cumbersome apparel of warm seal-skin boots; “but three of the seamen and two of the sappers and miners were so lame it was necessary to make long and frequent halts to allow them to close in;” so much so, that they “were unable to accomplish two geographical miles in the hour.” To give respite to their sufferings and time to gather strength, a camp was formed which greatly refreshed them; and next day they resumed the march in the face of a snowstorm, heightened by a piercing northerly wind.[29] Two rapid torrents, full of boulders, were forded in the course of the day’s journey, and “the discomfort of the march was greatly augmented by the men’s clothes, which had been saturated in crossing the streams, freezing on their backs.” In the vicinity of some narrow lakes by the side of a cluster of low, naked, but wide spreading spruce trees the expedition encamped, and here, as in other places, they arranged a “bivouac by placing small branches between the frozen ground and their blankets.” The following day found them resting near the Copper Mountains, crossing which, they walked onwards in snow-shoes, not without much difficulty and fatigue; and those of the travellers who lagged were assisted on their way by easing them “of everything but their blankets, spare clothing, and a few pounds of pemican.”[30]