186 SPORT. 



with appropriate corpse-like complexions, and shiver- 

 ing with cold. Vain thoughts of hot coffee fruit- 

 lessly agitate our minds as we peer despairingly 

 into the thick blanket of mist, which verifies the 

 old kill-joy's overnight prediction, and which, break- 

 fastless, save the slender crust preserved from yes- 

 terday's reckless mid-day meal, we must wait the 

 chance of the sun's power to dispel. 



It is weary work. The fog being too dense 

 for us to venture far from the ground we know, 

 for there are ugly precipices about us, we stamp 

 backwards and forwards to warm ourselves, and, 

 in default of food, smoke many pipes, till at last 

 more genial prognostications from the old prophet 

 cheer us. He sees signs, he says, of the almost 

 immediate lifting of the fog, and in a few minutes, 

 as if by magic, its whole chilly burden is removed, 

 and we are almost dazzled by the clear brilliancy 

 of tlie morning. My glass is out in an instant, 

 and I sweep the spot where I had last seen the 

 staq", but he is no longer there, nor can I make 



