With our time thus occupied, our comforts so abundant, and the prospect to seaward so enlivening, it would, indeed, have been our own faults had we felt anything but enjoyment in our present state, and the most lively hopes and expectations for the future. CHAPTER VII. Many Foxes caught.--Continued Open Water in the Offing.--Partial Disruption of the Ice in the Bay.--Meteorological Phenomena, and Temperature of Animals.--Arrival of a Tribe of Esquimaux.--First Meeting and subsequent Intercourse with them.--Esquimaux in Want of Provisions.--Supplied with Bread-dust.--Some Account of a Sealing Excursion with them.--Fresh Disruption of the Ice in the Bay.--Closing of the Winter Theatre.--Meteorological Phenomena till the End of February, 1822. The first day of the new year was a very severe one in the open air, the thermometer being down to -22°, and the wind blowing strong from the northwest. The effect of a breeze upon the feelings is well known to every person, even in comparatively temperate climates, but at low temperatures it becomes painful and almost insupportable. Thus, with the thermometer at -55°, and no wind stirring, the hands may remain uncovered for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour without inconvenience; while, with a fresh breeze, and the thermometer nearly as high as _zero_, few people can keep them exposed so long without considerable pain. About noon on the 2d, Captain Lyon observed a considerable body of snow taken up by the wind and whirled round in a spiral form like that of a water-spout, though with us the breeze was quite light at the time. It increased gradually in size till lost behind the southeast point. As a proof of the difficulty which the hares must find in obtaining subsistence during the winter, these animals were at this time in the habit of coming alongside the ships upon the ice to pick up what they could from our rubbish-heaps. A fox or two still entered the traps occasionally, and our gentlemen informed me that they had always been most successful in catching them after a southerly wind, which they attributed, with great probability, to the smell of the ships being thus more extensively communicated over the island. One or two of these poor creatures had been found in the traps with their tongues almost bitten in two. The traps made use of for catching these beautiful little animals were formed of a small cask, having a sliding door like that of a common mouse-trap, and were baited with oiled meat or blubber. The whole number caught during the winter was between eighty and ninety, of which more than seventy were taken before the end of December. In a single trap of Captain Lyon's, no less than fifteen were caught in the course of four hours, on the night of the 25th of November; and the people engaged in watching the trap remarked, that no sooner had one of these animals been taken out, and they themselves retired a few yards, than another entered it.