390 FRANKLIiYS LAST AND FATAL EXPEDITION~\S^o. 



clean, and the shirt sleeves tucked up, giving one unpleasant ideas that he 

 would not mind cutting one's leg off immediately — ' if not sooner.' He is 

 thoroughly good-natured and obliging, and very attentive to our mess. Le 

 Vesconte, you know. He improves, if possible, on closer acquaintance. 

 Fairholme, you know, or have seen ; is a smart, agreeable companion, and 

 a well-informed man. Sargent, a nice, pleasant-looking lad, very good- 

 natured. Des Vceux I knew in the 'Cornwallis.' He went out in her to 

 join the ' Endymion,' and was then a mere boy. He is now a most unex- 

 ceptionable, clever, agreeable, light-hearted, obliging young fellow, and a 

 great favourite of Hodgson's, which is much in his favour besides. Graham 

 Gore, the first lieutenant, a man of great stability of character, a very good 

 ofiicer, and the sweetest of tempers, is not so much a man of the world as 

 Fairholme or Des Voeux, is more of Le Vesconte's style, without his shy- 

 ness. He plays the flute dreadfully well, draws sometimes very well, some- 

 times very badly, but is altogether a capital fellow. Here ends my cata- 

 logue. I don't know whether I have managed to convey an impression of 

 our mess, and you know me sufficiently to be sure that I mention their little 

 faults, failings, and peculiarities in all charity. I wish I could, however, 

 convey to you a just idea of the immense stock of good feeling, good humour, 

 and real kindliness of heart in our small mess. We are very happy." 



These delightful chatty sketches, written to amuse a lady in England, 

 who had specially requested Fitzjames to inform her whether his comrades 

 were " good-natured," furnish us with material for forming probable conjec- 

 tures with respect to the usual employments of the mess of the " Erebus," 

 and to guess at the manner in which these fine fellows would comport them- 

 selves when the days of darkness and disease came upon them. But we 

 will not anticipate disaster just yet, and will make room here for the picture 

 which the above extract suggested to the fine imagination of Dickens : 

 "They were very happy !" exclaims the creator of Captain Cuttle. "What 

 a pathos in those four simple words, read by the light of our after-experi- 

 ence. They are very happy. How delightfully the little strokes of character 

 in the ' Journal ' open the view to us of the cheerful, simple-hearted social 

 intercourse of the sailor-brotherhood ! How vividly between tears and 

 smiles we see the honest faces round the mess table, as day by day draws 

 the good ship nearer and nearer to the cruel north. Purser Osmer, taking 

 his after-dinner pinch, and playing his rubber; long, straight, pleasantly- 

 laughing Goodsir, matching his learning and his science against ice-master 

 Keid and his natural north-country sharpness ; plump, white-handed surgeon 

 Stanley, with an attentive eye to the appointments of the mess table ; little, 

 quiet, steady, black-haired Crouch, listening to the conversation, while sweet- 

 tempered Des Voeux keeps it going pleasantly, and Graham Gore sits near 

 at hand, ready to while away the time, when the talk flags, with a tune on 



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