DEATH OF BELLOT. 453 



Harvey now hastened to an eminence, and watched 

 their comrades drifting out to sea on a floe of ice, with 

 a bitter breeze urging them further and further from 

 hope of escape, and deeper among the drifting ice. 

 During two hours they sat thus watching them, until at 

 last they were lost to view amid the driving snow. 

 When last seen, the two men were standing by the 

 sledge, and Bellot on the top of a hummock. 



Madden and Harvey now descended to the shore, 

 and instantly began their return-journey to the ship. 

 They walked round Griffin Bay, with very little provi- 

 sions, and reached Cape Bowden, where they remained 

 to take some rest. While there, two men were seen 

 hastening toward them. To their great surprise and 

 joy, these proved to be Johnson and Hook, who had 

 almost miraculously escaped from their perilous position 

 on the ice ; but their sad countenances too truly told 

 that their companion, the brave young Frenchman, was 

 gone. 



After getting a little refreshment, the whole party 

 now returned to their ship, which they reached in safety, 

 though not without much difficulty and severe privation. 

 The melancholy fate of poor Bellot cannot be better told 

 than by giving it in the words of Johnson, who was 

 with him on the ice at the time of his death. " We 

 got the provisions on shore/' says he, " on Wednesday, 

 the 17th. After we had done that, there remained on 

 the ice Hook, Lieut. Bellot, and myself, having with us 

 the sledge, Mackintosh-awning, and little boat. Com- 

 menced trying to draw the boat and sledge to the south- 

 ward, but found the ice driving so fast that we left the 

 sledge and took the boat only ; but the wind was so 

 strong at the time that it blew the boat over and over. 

 We then took the boat with us, under shelter of a piece 

 of ice, and Mr. Bellot and ourselves commenced (rutting 



