72 THE DOGS' SORTjS;^. Chap. IV. 



regular sorter, and in they all comes." "But 

 where do they come in, Harvey?" "Where, 

 Sir ? why everywheres ; they makes no more to 

 do, but in they comes, clean over all." Not 

 long ago old Harvey was chief quartermaster in 

 a line-of-battle ship, and a regular magnet to all 

 the younger midshipmen. He would spin them 

 yarns by the hour during the night-watches 

 about the wonders of the sea, and of the Arctic 

 regions in particular — its bears, its icebergs, and 

 still more terrific " auroras, roaring and flashing 

 about the ship enough to frighten a fellow " ! 



30#A. — Severe cold has arrived with the full 

 moon ; eight days ago the thermometer stood at 

 the freezing-point, it is now 64° below it ! So 

 dark is it now that I was able to observe an 

 eclipse of Jupiter's first satellite before three 

 o'clock to-day. For the last two months we 

 have drifted freely backwards and forwards 

 before N.W. and S.E. winds ; each time we have 

 gained a more off-shore position, being gradually 

 separated further and further from the land by 

 fresh growths of ice, which invariably follow up 

 every ice-movement. In this manner we have 

 been thrust out to the S.W. 80 miles from the 

 nearest land, and into that free space which in 

 autumn was open water, and which we then 

 vainly struggled to reach. 



