210 FINE WEATHER, [CHAP.IV. 



Sunday morning, and was the next day com- 

 mitted to the deep with the usual ceremony. 

 His case was very different from those who were 

 still suffering from indisposition, and who, with 

 sound constitutions, were attacked with a local, 

 and, as we hoped, a temporary complaint, 

 brought on we knew not how ; whereas Donald- 

 son had worn out a frame originally strong and 

 vigorous, in a succession of long and arduous, 

 services in the whale fishery, in the different 

 voyages of discovery under Sir E. Parry, on 

 board ships of war, and now finally in the Terror. 

 Though leading what is generally styled a hard 

 life, he had seldom if ever been ill ; but when 

 his constitution once began to break up, the 

 symptoms of decline were the more marked and 

 rapid, and he died at the early age of forty-three. 

 Though the event had been long anticipated, 

 it did not fail to cast a gloom over the spirits, 

 which however yielded in some measure before 

 the holy duties of the day, and the reflections 

 naturally arising from them. 



The wind had abated but once, when for a 

 brief interval it fell calm, and the thermometer 

 rose to 4° — j but in a few hours afterwards, viz. 

 at 8 h a. m. on February 6th, the cold had in- 

 creased to 29° — , with a fresh breeze from north- 

 west and a clear sky overhead, though misty 

 and indistinct with snow drift along the horizon. 



