32 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



light. These halos, both round the moon and 

 candles, occasionally exhibited faintly some of 

 the prismatic colours. 



As it may be interesting to the reader to know- 

 how we passed our time at this season of the 

 year, I shall mention briefly, that a considerable 

 portion of it was occupied in writing up our 

 journals. Some newspapers and magazines, 

 that we had received from England with our 

 letters, were read again and again, and com- 

 mented upon, at our meals ; and we often exer- 

 cised ourselves with conjecturing the changes that 

 might take place in the world before we could 

 hear from it again. The probability of our re- 

 ceiving letters, and the period of their arrival, 

 were calculated to a nicety. We occasionally 

 paid the woodmen a visit, or took a walk for a 

 mile or two on the river. 



In the evenings we joined the men in the haU, 

 and took a part in their games, which generaUy 

 continued to a late hour ; in short, we never found 

 the time to hang heavy upon our hands; and the 

 pecuhar occupations of each of the officers afforded 

 them more employment than might at first be 

 supposed. I re-calculated the observations made 

 on our route; Mr. Hood protracted the charts, 

 and made those drawings of birds, plants and 

 fishes, which cannot appear in this work', but 



