PHIPPS AND LUTWIDGE 29 



one of them, Weregin, died of scurvy, and their 

 gloomy forebodings as to which was to be taken next 

 were broken in upon by their sighting a ship, to which 

 they signalled with a flag made of deerskin. The 

 signal was seen and they were rescued ; and they took 

 back to Archangel two thousand pounds weight of 

 reindeer fat, their bales of skins and furs, their bow and 

 arrows and spears, and in short everything they pos- 

 sessed. And they arrived there on the 28th of Sep- 

 tember, 1749, comfortably off' from the value of the 

 goods they brought with them the heroes of one of 

 the very best of true desert island stories. 



Like most Russians they do not seem to have 

 suffered much from the cold or to have been incon- 

 venienced by the summer heat, which is also consider- 

 able. In 1773, on the 13th of June, when Phipps 

 and Lutwidge anchored in Fair Haven, round by 

 Amsterdam Island, they found the thermometer reach 

 58^ at noon and descend no lower than 51 at mid- 

 night, and on the 16th it rose in the sun to 89j till a 

 light breeze made it fall almost suddenly ten degrees. 

 This was the expedition sent out to the North Pole, 

 mainly at the instigation of Daines Barrington, Gilbert 

 White's friend. The ships were the Racehorse and 

 Carcass ; and, as every one knows, or ought to know, 

 as midshipman with Captain Lutwidge went Horatio 

 Nelson, then a boy of fourteen, who was to figure 

 largely in the world, though on this occasion he did 

 nothing remarkable beyond attacking a polar bear, 

 whose skin he thought would make a nice present for 

 his father, and bringing his boat to the rescue when 

 one of the Racehorse boats was attacked by walruses. 



