1 4 OCEAN SOLITUDES. 



became the landscape. Vegetation increased in 

 abundance, the snow lay in smaller and less deep 

 patches, while the footing was good and the surface 

 smooth. 



After an hour and a half's tramp, which led nearly 

 all down a slight incline, the descent became more 

 rapid ; brush gave way to dwarf trees, occasional 

 tufts of grass struggled through the soil for existence, 

 and a stray track of game here and there proclaimed 

 that we were not the only living creatures left upon 

 the earth. 



Have you ever been a long voyage, in which 

 you have traversed some of the remote solitudes 

 of ocean, when for weeks the straining eye has not 

 been able to detect upon the furthest limits of the 

 horizon a solitary sail ? Again and again the effort is 

 made to discern some indications of a ship. The 

 last thing you do before darkness envelopes your 

 floating habitation is to gaze wistfully around ; the 

 first thing in the morning, in the rarefied atmosphere 

 that precedes the rising sun, you resume your search 

 for the discovery of land, or for the appearance of a 

 vessel, till at length continued disappointment maketh 

 the heart grow sick, and the hope which had so long 

 sustained you gives way, and is replaced by despair. 

 Next morning, however, at the grey dawn, when 

 with languid step and fevered brow you gain the 

 deck, you find the breeze of last night has died away 

 into a calm, and the great heaving bosom of the deep 

 at comparative rest, and the distant view curtailed 



