NE WFO UNDLAND. 59 



" the plain-spoken rof^ues would welcome me with — 

 " ' Oh, Gosse, pray don't come very near ! you stink so 

 "•of seal-oil!' then, at times, the bitter cold of winter, 

 "not yet yielding to spring, the snowy gales driving in 

 "on me, and blowing up through the corduroy poles 

 " which made the floor ; — all this made me heartily glad 

 " when the last schooner was discharged, and I was 

 " again free to take my place with my fellows. 



" I picked up, however, during this occupation, a good 

 " deal of interesting information. I became familiar with 

 " the different species of seals ; learned much of their 

 "habits and natural history, and of the adventures of the 

 "hunters; and formed a pretty graphic and correct 

 " idea of the circumstances of the voyage, and scenes at 

 " the ice. A good deal of this I embodied in a journal, 

 " which I had continued to keep ever since I parted from 

 *' home, sending it consecutively to mother, as book after 

 "book became filled. The one I now transmitted was 

 " embellished, as I well recollect, with a coloured frontis- 

 " piece, of full sheet size, folded so as to correspond with 

 " the leaves of the book. This represented an animated 

 "scene at the ice, in which several schooners were 

 '' moored and several boats' crews were scattered about, 

 " with their gaffs and guns, pursuing the young seals ; 

 " others pelting them, and others dragging their loads of 

 "pelts to their boats. Though destitute of all artistic 

 " power, it was a valuable picture ; for it represented, 

 "with vividness and truth, a scene which then had 

 "never been adequately described in print, certainly 

 " never depicted. I am sorry to say that this, with all 

 "the other records of those times and scenes, has long 

 " been utterly and unaccountably lost ; no trace having 

 " been preserved, except in fading memory, of what I 

 "took so much pains to perpetuate. Many shiftings of 



