THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 719 



rador coast, where they were now drifting. At 5 p. M., of April 

 30th, they were overjoyed by the near approach of a steamer, 

 pushing her way through a thick fog. The guns were instantly 

 fired, while the noise of the discharge was increased by a great 

 shout which they set up to attract attention. Being very near, 

 the ship's officers soon perceived the drifting party, and lying to, 

 sent out a boat, into which they were lifted and speedily trans- 

 ferred on board the steamer. It would be impossible to describe 

 the joy felt by Tyson and his fellow-sufferers at finding them- 

 selves in warm, comfortable quarters, feasting from a bounteous 

 table, and saved from the very jaws of a terrible death. The 

 vessel that rescued them was a sealer, the Tigress, commanded 

 by Capt. Bartlett, who returned with them to St. Johns, arriv- 

 ing there May 12th. The extraordinary character of this adven- 

 .ture has passed into history as one of the greatest wonders of 

 shipwreck and endurance. Fora period of 196 days they were 

 drifting on the ice-floes, during which time they traveled, by the 

 current, 2,000 miles. It is a story which almost surpasses belief, 

 yet true to the letter. 



NIGHT IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



DARKNESS is a condition of nature which we instinctively shun ; 

 it seems to curtain the world like a pall of death, or afford con- 

 cealment for hideous things ; horrible mirages of the brain, and 

 misty apparitions, which tradition has conceived and transmitted. 

 With our natural dread of twelve hours night succeeding a like 

 period of day, what must be the effect of an uninterrupted night 

 of nearly five months? Not clouds and shadows, but the deep 

 shades of changeless darkness, when the moon, in her phases, 

 is the only source of light, save -the stars that twinkle like a frost- 

 setting gathering gleams from a setting sun. 



Dr. Kane's Journal of November 7th reads: "The darkness 

 is coming on with insidious steadiness, and its advances can only 

 be perceived by comparing one day with its fellow of some time 

 back. We still read the thermometer at noonday without alight, 

 and the black masses of the hills are plain for about five hours 

 with their glaring patches of snow ; but. all the rest is darkness. 



