July, 1S59. ANXIETY FOR YOUNG'S RETURN. 269 



footsteps of the lost expedition, greatly revived the spirits of 

 my small crew ; we wished only for the safe and speedy 

 return of Young and his party. 



Captain Young commenced his spring explorations on the 

 7th April, with a sledge party of four men, and a second 

 sledge drawn by six dogs under the management of our 

 Greenlander, Samuel ; almost incessant gales greatly retarded 

 his progress : and finding that a channel existed between 

 Prince of Wales' Land and Victoria Land whereby his field 

 for discovery and search would be lengthened, he sent back 

 one sledge, the tent, and four men to the ship, in order to 

 economise provisions, and for forty days journeyed with one 

 man (George Hobday) and the dogs, encamping in such 

 snow lodges as they were able to build. 



For many days together no sun appeared ; they journeyed 

 when the storms abated, pushing on — without regard to day 

 or night on these occasions — as long as their strength per- 

 mitted. Once, when quite worn out with fatigue, they slept 

 an unbroken sleep of many hours, their snow-hut so buried 

 in the drift as to be unusually warm and snug, and the storm 

 without supplying an appropriate lullaby ; and so a day 

 slipped by unnoticed ! It would have been a marvel had 

 they retained their reckoning during those forty dreary, 

 diurnal periods, those days without nights. 



Young, being a skilful navigator, tested and corrected his 

 calendar, by comparing his observed lunar distance with that 

 given in the Nautical Almanack. 



Hobday is a fine young man-of-war's man, and also a man 

 of few words ; his faith in his leader was unbounded, and of 

 the unquestioning sort : all he cared to understand, were his 

 orders. 



When Young contemplated the possibility of still further 

 extending his journey, by substituting a lame dog or two for 

 pemmican, the only response his taciturn companion vouch- 



