POST NUBILA PHCEBUS. 143 



effect. The 12tli being a bright day, the opportunity pre- 

 sented itself of observing the ebb and tide. We lay near 

 an iceberg, which measured 120 feet high, was estimated 

 at 180 in breadth and 200 in length. From ten a.m. 

 until four p.m. the current set us slowly towards an iceberg 

 surrounded by a strip of water, sometimes so near that 

 we tried to push ourselves from it by poles. During this 

 time we observed that the flood had risen two feet to the 

 easily discernible high-water mark on the berg. At 

 four p.m. the water again began to sink, and we floated 

 back. We could hear the hissing and thundering of the 

 ice floes falling after the ebb headlong from the banks. 

 Small flights of linnets and snow-buntings visited us. 

 We threw them some oat-groats, which they greedily 

 devoured ; at the same time being so tame, that we could 

 catch them with the hand. In the middle of April a 

 slight attack of scurvy attacked one of our men, the 

 carpenter, whose leg was much swollen. We applied 

 some simple remedies, made him take plenty of exercise, 

 and he was soon restored. 



The Easter Festival fell at the time we lay floating 

 backwards and forwards in the Bay of Nukarbik. We 

 spent it cheerfully, in health, and full of hope of 

 eventual preservation out of all danger and want; to us 

 it was indeed a real Resurrection Festival. Had we not 

 often had death before our eyes in its most threatening 

 form ? Nature, too, began to show signs of approaching 

 spring; the air was considerably milder, the lowest 

 temperature in the night 23° Fahr,; in the sunshine, wliich 

 we often enjoyed while stretched upon the sails of the 

 boats, the thermometer rose to 64^° Fahr. On the first 

 festival day (17th of April) we had a good meal, pre- 



