CHAP. IV.] ADVANTAGES OF SITUATION. 187 



ous rocky hills, separated by vallies, and reach- 

 ing to the headland, the distance being crowned 

 by mountains less high and more rounded than 

 those further west. 



January 13th. Very little alteration had taken 

 place in the floe, and our own position remained 

 unchanged. This for the present was exactly as 

 we wished, for our onward progress to the east- 

 ward might have carried us into a less inter- 

 rupted space, and therefore within the influence 

 of a stronger tide ; and as the floe in such case 

 must inevitably have been broken up, we should 

 have been cast loose too early amidst difficulties 

 most harassing, if not inextricable. To be thus 

 quietly arrested, even though not beyond the 

 next twenty-four hours, was a matter for which 

 we were sincerely grateful. 



A sailor, named Graham Walker, had been 

 for some time under the care of the medical 

 gentlemen who, at first, had good grounds for 

 supposing that little was the matter with him. 

 However, he was treated as a sick man ; and for 

 want of exercise, or by some means or other, he 

 soon contrived to render himself so in earnest. 

 Unhappily the symptoms shortly after became 

 scorbutic, and the man being of melancholic tem- 

 perament, and utterly incapable of being roused 

 or cheered, grew daily worse. Yet his appetite 

 continued good until within the last few days, and 



