THE DEAD CREW. 411 



for he was dead ! He had a pen in his rigid hand, and 

 before him a log-book, in which the last sentence ran as 

 follows : 



" November llth. We have now been enclosed in the 

 ice seventeen days. The fire went out yesterday, and 

 our master has been trying ever since to kindle it again, 

 without success. His wife died this morning. There is 

 no relief." 



Without uttering a word, Captain Warrens and his 

 seamen hastened from the spot. 



Arriving at the principal cabin, their attention was 

 attracted by the dead body of a female reclining on a 

 bed, as if enjoying a calm, untroubled sleep. All the 

 freshness of life still remained on her countenance, and 

 it was only the contraction of the limbs that showed her 

 form Was inanimate. Seated on the floor was a man in 

 the very prime of life, holding a steel in one hand and a 

 flint in the other, as if in the act of striking fire upon 

 some tinder which lay beside him. He too was dead. 

 And the dead bodies of several sailors were found lying 

 in their respective berths, while that of a boy was crouched 

 at the bottom of the gangway stairs. 



Neither provisions nor fuel could anywhere be dis- 

 covered ; but Captain Warrens was prevented, by the 

 superstitious prejudices of his followers, for seamen are 

 the most superstitious of all human beings, perhaps 

 because they come so constantly into contact with the 

 mysterious forces and weird influences of Nature, from 

 inspecting the vessel as closely as he could have wished. 

 He contented himself, therefore, with carrying away her 

 log-book ; and returning to his ship, immediately steered 

 to the southward, leaving behind him a " romance of the 



