OF THE POLAR SEA. 



435 



be able, he would go and search for Vaillant and Cr6dit ; and he 

 requested my permission to take Vaillant's blanket, if he should 

 find it, to which I agreed, and mentioned it in my notes to the 

 officers. 



Scarcely were these arrangements finished, before Perrault and 

 Fontano were seized with a fit of dizziness, and betrayed other 

 symptoms of extreme debility. Some tea was quickly prepared for 

 them, and after drinking it, and eating a few morsels of burnt 

 leather, they recovered, and expressed their desire to go forward ; 

 but the other men, alarmed at what they had just witnessed, became 

 doubtful of their own strength, and, giving way to absolute dejec- 

 tion, declared their own inability to move, I now earnestly pressed 

 upon them the necessity of continuing our journey, as the only means 

 of saving their own lives, as well as those of our friends at the tent ; 

 and, after much entreaty, got them to set out at ten A.M. : Be- 

 langer and Michel were left at the encampment, and proposed to 

 start shortly afterwards. By the time we had gone about two 

 hundred yards, Perrault became again dizzy, and desired us to halt, 

 which we did, until he, recovering, proposed to march on. Ten 

 minutes more had hardly elapsed before he again desired us to stop, 



bursting into tears, declared he was totally exhausted, and un- 

 able to accompany us further. As the encampment was not more 

 than a quarter of a mile distant, we proposed that he should return 



to it, and rejoin Belanger and Michel, whom we knew to be still 



there, from perceiving the smoke of a fresh fire ; and because they 



had not made any preparation for starting when we left them. He 



readily acquiesced in the proposition, and having taken a friendly 



leave of each of us, and enjoined us to make all the haste we could 



in sending relief, he turned back, keeping his gun and ammunition. 



We watched him until he was near to the fire, and then proceeded. 



During these detentions, Augustus becoming impatient of the 



delay, had walked on, and we lost sight of him. The labour we 



in 



