The 25 of December, being Christmas day, it was foule wether with a north-west wind; and yet, though it was [very] foule wether, we hard [899] the foxes run ouer our house, wherewith some of our men said it was an ill signe; and while we sate disputing why it should be an ill signe, some of our men made answere that it was an ill signe because we could not take them, to put them into the pot to rost them, [900] for that had been a very good signe for vs. The 26 of December it was foule wether, the wind north-west, and it was so [extraordinarily] cold that we could not warme vs, although we vsed all the meanes we could, with greate fires, good store of clothes, and with hot stones and billets [901] laid vpon our feete and vpon our bodies as we lay in our cabens; [902] but notwithstanding all this, in the morning our cabens were frozen [white], which made vs behold one the other with sad countenance. But yet we comforted our selues againe as well as we could, that the sunne was then as low as it could goe, and that it now began to come to vs againe, [903] and we found it to be true; for that the daies beginning to lengthen the cold began to strengthen, but hope put vs in good comfort and eased our paine. [904] The 27 of December it was still foule wether with a north-west wind, so that as then we had not beene out in three daies together, nor durst not thrust our heads out of doores; and within the house it was so extreme cold, that as we sate [close] before a great fire, and seemed to burne [905] [our shins] on the fore side, we froze behinde at our backs, and were al white, as the country men [906] vse to be when they come in at the gates of the towne in Holland with their sleads, [907] and haue gone [908] all night. The 28 of December it was still foule wether, with a west wind, but about euening it began to cleare vp. At which time one of our men made a hole open at one of our doores, and went [909] out to see what news abroad, [910] but found it so hard wether that he stayed not long, and told vs that it had snowed so much that the snow lay higher than our house, and that if he had stayed out longer his eares would undoubtedly haue been frozen off. The 29 of December it was calme wether and a pleasant aire, [911] the wind being southward. That day he whose turne it was opened the doore and dig’d a hole through the snow, where wee went out of the house vpon steps as if it had bin out of a seller, [912] at least seuen or eight steps high, each step a foote from the other. And then we made cleane our springes [or traps] for the foxes, whereof for certain [913] daies we had not taken any; and as we made them cleane, one of our men found a dead fox in one of them that was frozen as hard as a stone, which he brought into the house and thawed it before the fire, and after fleaing it some of our men ate it.