" For the rest, the carefully-selected pack on the sled contained the marmot-skin, woollen blankets, a change of flannels apiece, a couple of sweaters, a Norfolk jacket, and several changes of foot-gear.

It is more likely that they had made their own holes to shelter in rather than that these were marmot holes.

Well, it finally ended in this way: in Ventose, 1796,which was the same time of year that our March is now,we were penned up in one corner of the marmot country: but at the end of the first campaign, lo and behold!