320 Thirty Years 



This intelligence produced a melancholy despondency 

 in the minds of my party, and on that account the 

 particulars were deferred until another opportunity. 

 We were all shocked at beholding the emaciated coun- 

 tenances of the Doctor and Hepburn, as they strongly 

 evidenced their extremely debilitated state. The al- 

 teration in our appearance was equally distressing to 

 them, for since the swellings had subsided, we were 

 little more than skin and bone. The Doctor particu- 

 larly remarked the sepulchral tone of our voices, 

 which he requested us to make more cheerful if 

 possible, unconscious that his own partook of the same 

 key. 



Hepburn having shot a partridge, which was brought 

 to the house, the Doctor tore out the feathers, and 

 having held it to the fire a few minutes, divided it 

 into- seven portions. Each piece was ravenously de- 

 voured 1))' my companions, as it was the first morsel 

 of flesh any of us had tasted for thirty-one days, un- 

 less indeed the small gristly particles which we found 

 occasionally adhering to the pounded bones may be 

 termed flesh. Our spirits were revived by this small 

 supply, and the Doctor endeavored to raise them still 

 higher by the prospect of Bepburn's being able to kill 



a de i- next day, as they had seen, and even Bred at, 

 ,1 near the hoU8e. lie endeavored, too, to rouse 



ome at trillion to the comfort of our apartment. 



