Spring at Chesterfield Inlet.
Mr. Warburton Pike, writing of May 1, 1887, at a whaler’s camp on Hudson bay in the vicinity of Chesterfield inlet, states:—“Water was standing in pools over the ice in the bay; the snow had disappeared except in the drifts; a light rain was falling, and the first goose was killed from the door of the master’s house; small bands of wild-fowl were passing frequently, and cranes were calling in the swamps to the southward; daylight lingered in the sky all night, but there was always a sharp frost while the sun was down.”
Mr. Hanbury, after crossing from Chesterfield inlet to the Arctic coast, writes:—“June is the one perfect month in the northland. The temperature is just right; there is not a fly or mosquito to trouble one. The land is clear of snow, with the exception of a few deep drifts and banks, and the walking is good, for the land dries with wonderful rapidity. The ice is still good to travel over. Plenty of salmon are now running.”
Mr. Warburton Pike, on his canoe and overland trip in 1890, when north of the east end of Great Slave lake on June 16, wrote:—“A few warm days made a great difference in the appearance of the country. Leaves began to sprout on the little willows, and the grass showed green on the hillsides; sober hued flowers, growing close to the ground, came out in bloom, and a few butterflies flapped in the hot sunshine, while we were still walking on eight feet of solid ice. Mosquitoes appeared in myriads; in the daytime there was usually a breeze to blow them away, and the nights were too cold for them, but in the calm mornings and evenings they made the most of their chance to annoy us.”
On June 25, Mr. Pike’s party planted their lodges on a high ridge overlooking Lake Mackay.
Ice on Aylmer Lake June 25.
At that same date the ice on Aylmer lake was still solid.
In 1821, when Franklin’s party started to descend the Coppermine on July 1, the lakes on its upper course were still covered with ice. Apparently the river had opened only a short time before. In 1849, Doctor Rae noted the breaking up of the same river near its mouth on June 28. At this time the leaves of the dwarf birches were out, and the leaf buds of the willows had begun to develop. The lower part of the river remained blocked with ice until July 13.
Mr. Pike relates that about July 10 the weather in the neighbourhood of the headwaters of Backs river “was variable in the extreme; two or three hot days would be followed by a snowstorm and once we were visited by a hurricane that did much damage to lodge-poles, and caused us to shift camp hurriedly to the lee-side of a steep cliff hanging over the river. July 10 was exceptionally hot in the morning, with the mosquitoes at their worst; in the middle of the day there was a thunderstorm, and at five o’clock the ground was covered with snow. The ice now began to show signs of rotting, and the channel of open water round the weather edge of the lake grew rapidly broader.”
Sunset at Half Past Eleven.