OF THE POLAR SEA. 



449 



Dr. RICHARDSON'S NARRATIVE 



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After Captain Franklin had bidden us farewell we remained 

 seated by the fire-side as long as the willows, the men had cut for 

 us before they departed, lasted. We had no tripe de roche that day, 

 but drank an infusion of the country tea-plant, which was grateful 

 from its warmth, although it afforded no sustenance. We then 

 retired to bed, where we remained all the next day, as the weather 

 was stormy, and the snow-drift so heavy, as to destroy every prospect 

 of success in our endeavours to light a fire with the green and frozen 

 willows, which were our only fuel. Through the extreme kindness 

 and forethought of a lady, the party, previous to leaving London, 

 had been furnished with a small collection of religious books, of 

 which we still retained two or three of the most portable, and they 

 proved of incalculable benefit to us. We read portions of them to 

 each other as we lay in bed, in addition to the morning and evening 

 service, and found that they inspired us on each perusal with so 

 strong a sense of the omnipresence of a beneficent God, that our 

 situation, even in these wilds, appeared no longer destitute ; and we 

 conversed, not only with calmness, but with cheerfulness, detailing 

 with unrestrained confidence the past events of our lives, and 

 dwelling with hope on our future prospects. Had my poor friend 

 been spared to revisit his native land, I should look back to this 

 period with unalloyed delight. 



On the morning of the 29th, the weather, although still cold, was 

 clear, and I went out in quest of tripe de roche, leaving Hepburn to 

 cut willows for a fire, and Mr. Hood in bed. I had no success, as 

 yesterday's snow drift was so frozen on the surface of the rocks that 

 I could not collect any of the weed ; but, on my return to the tent, 

 I found that Michel, the Iroquois, had come with a note from 



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