386 Notices respecting New Books, 



Some deer having been seen near the ships on the 10th of Oc- 

 tober, a party was despatched after them, and, being led on by 

 the ardour of pursuit, forgot Capt. Parry's order that every per- 

 son should be on board before sunset. 



' John Pearson, a marine belonging to the Griper, who was 

 the last that returned on board, had his hands severely frost- 

 bitten, having imprudently gone away without mittens, and with 

 a musket in his hand. A party of our people most providentially 

 found liiui, although the niglit was very dark, just as he had fallen 

 down a steep baidi of snow, and was beginning to feel that de- 

 gree of torpor and drowsiness which, if indulged, inevitably proves 

 fatal. When he was brought on board, his fingers were quite 

 stiff, and bent into the shape of that part of the musket he liad 

 been carrying; and the frost had so far destroyed the animation 

 in his fingers on one hand, that it was necessary to amputate 

 three of them a short time after, notwithstanding all the cai'e 

 and attention paid to him by the medical gentlemen. The effect 

 which exposure to se%'ere frost has, in benumbing the mental as 

 well as the corporeal faculties, was very striking in this man, as 

 well as in two of the young gentlemew who returned after dark, 

 and of whom we were anxious to make inquiries respecting Pear- 

 son. When I sent for them into my cabin, they looked wild, 

 spoke thick and indistinctly, and it was impossible to draw from 

 them a rational answer to any of our cpiestions. After being on 

 board for a short time, the mental faculties appeared gradually 

 to return with the returning circulation, and it was not till then 

 that a looker-on could easily persuade himself that they had not 

 been drinking too freely. To those who have been much accus- 

 tomed to cold countries, this will be no new remark ; but I can- 

 not help thinking (and it is with this view that I speak of it) that 

 many a man may have been punished for intoxication, who was 

 only suffering from the benumbing effects of frost ; for I have 

 more than once seen our people in a state so exactly resembrmg 

 that of the most stupid intoxication, that I shoald certainly liave 

 charged them with that offence, had 1 not been quite sure that 

 no possible means were afforded them on Melville Island, to pro- 

 cure any thing stronger than snow-water.' 



The 4th of November was the last day that the sun was seen 

 above the horizon, bat the weather was not sufficiently clear to 

 allow the scientific gentlemen to make any observations on the 

 disappearance of that cheering orb, ' of this great world both 

 eve and soul.' The next day the theatre was opened, and 

 Miss in her Teens performed ; a new Christmas piece was also 

 produced, which was received with great eclat by the audience. 

 The circumstances under which the crews were situated being 

 such as never before occurre<l, it caimot be uninteresting to know 



ill 



