NINE MONTHS IN THE ARCTIC. 217 



time. The ordinary vehicles of public intel- 

 ligence — newspapers and letters, both from the 

 islands and from the Pacific coast — unite in 

 announcing the grand rendezvous or arrival of 

 northern whalemen. 



If, now, there should be ships not included in 

 the late report, and from which no recent let- 

 ters have been received either by owners or rel- 

 atives, and those ships not having been spoken 

 with by others, they are specially marked as 

 "missing ships," and serious apprehensions be- 

 gin to be entertained lest some disaster may 

 have befallen them. 



The mail in February or March is supposed 

 to bring from the islands and intermediate ports 

 all the reliable information respecting those ships 

 that have arrived during the last four months. 

 Therefore a ship not reported now must have 

 either gone to some other port, or never left the 

 northern seas, or been wrecked and lost. 



This was the case with the ship Citizen. 

 There was no account of her arrival at the isl- 

 ands, agreeably to the intention of Captain 

 Norton on his return from the Arctic ; his friends 

 at home, therefore, looked for the report of his 

 arrival, if not among the first, certainly among 

 the last. 



Besides, there were neither letters from him or 



