SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 349 



powerful constitution of his younger companion, who 

 succeeded himself in casting off the drowsiness by a 

 strong and painful effort, and was enabled also to rescue 

 his friend. I have more than once heard him discourse 

 on the subject : he described the desire of sleep which 

 then stole over his senses as altogether irresistible, and 

 ascribed its force to the effect of the cold in making all 

 other desires with all tlie faculties torpid. Motion seemed 

 to produce little effect, for the irresistible tendency was 

 at every step to sink down, as if the greatest suffering 

 was to continue alive and awake, the most delightful state 

 to fall asleep and expire; nor, so far as I recollect his 

 account, did any of them, while yielding to this propensity, 

 doubt that it was indulged at the cost of life itself. Dr. 

 Solander's case was peculiarly remarkable. Accustomed 

 to excessive cold in travelling among the Norwegian and 

 Swedish Alps, he had warned his companions of the fate 

 that awaited them should they yield to drowsiness. " Who- 

 ever," said he, "sits down, will sleep; whoever sleeps 

 will wake no more/' Yet was he soonest overpowered. 

 He insisted on being suffered to lie down. One of the 

 men said, " all he desired was to lay down and die." 

 The Doctor did not quite say so; but he acted on this 

 feeling. He fell asleep before he could reach the fire which 

 Mr. Banks had kindled. When the latter roused him, his 

 feet were found to be so shrunk that his shoes fell off. 



On the 26th of January, 1769, they sailed from Cape 

 Horn, and arrived, after a prosperous voyage, at Otaheite, 

 on the 11 th of April. The delightful climate, pleasing 

 landscape, and amiable people which here met them, may 

 well be supposed to have enchanted men who for eight 

 long months had seen only the sea and the sky, unless 



