NINE MONTHS IN "THE ARCTIC. 77 



catastrophe which would befall his fellow-com- 

 panions. 



Besides, considerations were urgent and press- 

 ing why we should make all possible haste, 

 either to find some suitable habitation for the 

 winter, or, perchance, fall in with some friendly 

 vessel. With the advance of the season, we 

 were assured that traveling would become more 

 and more difficult, and that Borean storms would 

 soon burst upon us with resistless fury. And 

 hence, to remain where we were first cast upon 

 the shore, without persevering efforts to save our 

 lives, would be the height of presumption. With 

 nothing more to protect us than the frail tent 

 which we had erected, thinly clad, and all we had 

 on our backs, a limited supply of provisions from 

 the wreck, if we should remain at our first land- 

 ing place until deliverance should come to us, 

 then, indeed, before the opening of another spring, 

 all of us would have fallen victims to inexora- 

 ble death. 



At this distance from the place where the scene 

 of our sufferings commenced, how little can our 

 readers appreciate what were then our condition, 

 wants, and prospects! Indeed, ice and snow 

 already began to largely increase, though we 

 were in the region of eternal frosts, where they 

 never wholly disappear. Both upon the shore, 



