ATTRACTIONS OF WINTER WEATHER 293 



always show to more advantage in the least genial 

 of latitudes. We have nothing more thrilling in 

 the national annals though foreigners, by the way, 

 have been running us hard of late years, as the Dutch 

 and the Scandinavians did in former centuries than 

 our stories of arctic adventure. We see the hardy 

 navigator an amphibious cross between the bull-dog 

 and the sword-fish, with the tenacity of the one and 

 the dash of the other standing out into the polar 

 fogs and ice-floes in the bark that was but a cockle- 

 shell in point of tonnage. The timbers might be sea- 

 soned oak, and the rude fastenings of well-hammered 

 iron, yet a casual nip of the ice must crack its sides 

 like a walnut-shell. We see the rough skipper and his 

 crew clinging to the tiller and the frozen shrouds, in 

 seas that sweep the deck from stem to stern, and 

 weather that would tear any canvas into ribbons. In 

 the safe little sea-boat, that is slow at the best under sail, 

 they have to bide their time and possess their souls in 

 patience as they lie becalmed under the lee of the ice- 

 cliffs, or dodge the irresistible set of the ice-packs. 

 There was scarcely room to cc swing a cat " in the tiny 

 cabin that just served as a refuge. Over-tasked and 

 short-handed as they were, they had often to turn in 

 " all standing," ready to answer the boatswain's call at 

 a moment's notice ; and they expected the inevitable 

 arrival of the scurvy on salt junk, weevily ship-biscuit 

 and new rum. Preserved meats and lime-juice were as 

 yet undreamt of ; and their medicine and luxury was 

 the quid of tobacco, at once the best of sedatives and 



