In the ample forests of Maine or New Brunswick, rich in oak and maple and pine, abounding in deer, partridge, and other wild game, watered by crystal fountains springing from every acre of the soil, we naturally picture for our colonists a winter of robust health, physical comfort, and social enjoyment. The little island which they had chosen was indeed a charming spot in a summer's day, but we can hardly comprehend in what view it could have been regarded as suitable for a colonial plantation. In space it was wholly inadequate; it was destitute of wood and fresh water, and its soil was sandy and unproductive. In fixing the location of their settlement and in the construction of their houses, it is obvious that they had entirely misapprehended the character of the climate. While the latitude was nearly the same, the temperature was far more rigorous than that of the sunny France which they had left. The snow began to fall on the 6th of October. On the 3d of December the ice was seen floating on the surface of the water. As the season advanced, and the tide came and went, huge floes of ice, day after day, swept by the island, rendering it impracticable to navigate the river or pass over to the mainland. They were therefore imprisoned in their own home. Thus cut off from the game with which the neighboring forests abounded, they were compelled to subsist almost exclusively upon salted meats. Nearly all the forest trees on the island had been used in the construction of their houses, and they had consequently but a meagre supply of fuel to resist the chilling winds and penetrating frosts. For fresh water, their only reliance was upon melted snow and ice. Their store-house had not been furnished with a cellar, and the frost left nothing untouched; even cider was dispensed in solid blocks. To crown the gloom and wretchedness of their situation, the colony was visited with disease of a virulent and fatal character. As the malady was beyond the knowledge, so it baffled the skill of the surgeons. They called it _mal de la terre_. Of the seventy-nine persons, composing the whole number of the colony, thirty-five died, and twenty others were brought to the verge of the grave. In May, having been liberated from the baleful influence of their winter prison and revived by the genial warmth of the vernal sun and by the fresh meats obtained from the savages, the disease abated, and the survivors gradually regained their strength.