NOTES FROM DIAET KEPT AT QTJICKIOCK. 129 



shouted, but no answer ; so on I floundered, 

 without the slightest idea where I was steering, 

 for I was fairly lost ; and if I had even tried now 

 to make " back tracks," the darkness of the night 

 and the heavy falling snow prevented me seeing 

 my spor. I had, therefore, nothing for it but 

 to take a straight line, and keep it, trusting to 

 luck to bring me at last to some familiar object. 

 On I floundered, sometimes the snow-drifts in the 

 hollows four feet deep, always above my knees ; 

 and so great was the exertion, that in about an 

 hour more I was fairly beaten ; and although 

 I should reckon there was then at least 13 cold 

 Celsius, the perspiration poured oft me in streams. 

 Again I fired off my gun, and shouted, but no 

 welcome answer. No one was likely to be out 

 round here on such a night, and even if a cottage 

 window had been blazing within two hundred yards 

 of me, I should certainly have never seen it through 

 the murky waste. I could keep no note of time, 

 but I fancy it must have been near midnight when 

 I reached another clump of trees, and, being now 

 fairly beat, I sat down at the foot of one with my 

 back to the wind, but as soon as I had sat down, 

 a complete revulsion came over me. My blood 

 seemed all at once to stagnate, my head reeled, 

 my eyes appeared to be starting from their 

 sockets, and a drowsiness, the like of which I 



K 



