156 THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES. 



on looking into it, he perceived a man reclining 

 back in a chair, with writing materials on a 

 table before him, but the feebleness of the light 

 made everything very indistinct. The party 

 went upon deck, and having removed the hatch- 

 way, which they found closed, they descended 

 to the cabin. 



They first came to the apartment which 

 Captain Warrens viewed through the port-hole. 

 A tremour seized him as he entered it. Its in- 

 mate retained its former position, and seemed 

 to be insensible to strangers. He was found 

 to be a corpse, and a green damp mould had 

 covered his cheeks and forehead, and veiled his 

 eye-balls. He had a pen in his hand, and a 

 log book lay before him, the last sentence in 

 whose unfinished page ran thus : " November 

 J 1th, 1762. We have now been inclosed in the 

 ice seventeen days. The fire went out yester- 

 day, and our master has been trying ever since 

 to kindle it again without success. His wife 

 died this morning. There is no relief." 



Captain Warrens and his seamen hurried 

 from the spot without uttering a word. On 



