1 82 VERY NARROW ESCAPE. Chap. XI. 



ring round his throat, his own breath frosted on his black 

 feathers. 



We seldom were so wanton as to shoot a raven, but 

 when we did so, we generally found it to be minus some of 

 the joints of its toes, the results of frost-bites. 



All over the arctic regions they have been found : the 

 same bird which still hovers over the sweltering plains of 

 Jericho, and lodges in the rocky hill-side which overhangs 

 the brook Cherith • the same wonderful bird which the early 

 Vikings, we are told, took with them upon their voyages, 

 somewhat in the double capacity of mariner's compass and 

 chief pilot — their extraordinary powers of sight and smell 

 enabling them to discover land at incredible distances. 



Were it not for the frost-bitten toes, one might fairly doubt 

 whether ravens are sensible of the rigours of this climate, 

 which they endure apparently without any adequate pro- 

 tection. 



6th, Saturday night. — The N. W. gale blew without 

 intermission for seventy hours, the temperature being about 

 — 15 : we hoped that our absent shipmates might be 

 housed safely in snow huts. This afternoon all doubts 

 respecting them were dispelled by their arrival in good 

 health, but they evidently have suffered from cold and 

 exposure during their absence of nineteen days. For the 

 first six days they journeyed outward successfully ; on that 

 night they encamped upon the ice ; it was at spring tide, a 

 N.E. gale sprang up, and, blowing off shore, detached the 

 ice and drifted them off. 



As soon as they discovered that the ice was drifting off 

 shore with them, they packed their sledges, harnessed the 

 dogs, and passed the long and fearful night in anxious 

 watching for some chance to escape. When the ice got a 

 little distance off shore, it broke up under the influence of 

 the wind and sea, until the piece they were upon was scarce 



