392 FRANKLTN'S LAST AND FATAL EXPEDITION— l%^o. 



sheepish, and would not look me in the face ; but nothing more was said, 

 and the men have behaved not a bit the worse ever since." 



Fair progress is made during the early days of July. On the 11th and 

 12th the wind is high, the colour of the sea, which advances upon them in 

 a never-ending succession of long and lofty rollers, is a " beautiful, delicate, 

 cold-looking green." Amid pouring rain and thick mantling fogs, on the 

 14th the " Erebus " and " Terror," together with the store ship, which is to 

 accompany them to Disco, sail on slowly, and in close company. It is a 

 dull day, and the officers while away the time getting out and arrangiiig 

 their books, and find to their satisfaction that among them they can set up 

 quite a considerable library. Every one is helpful and kindly to his neigh- 

 bour. The cook, who appears to have acquired his skill on land, is at a 

 loss how to make the salt fish a little less salt ; and in his bewilderment he 

 slings the fish overboard and tows it through the brine. This peculiar 

 method of putting out the fire by adding fuel to it provokes the ridicule of 

 the "old salt," ice-master Reid. "What are you making faces at there 1" 

 shouts the practical Aberdonian. " That's not the way to get the sarlt oot. 

 Boil the fish first, then keep it near the fire a while, just below the boil." 

 The recipe, we may be sure, was not forgotten. Later in the evening, Reid 

 and merry purser Osmer have a little quiet symposium, the ice-master 

 recounting his adventures when he was captain of a whaler, and Osmer 

 telling humorous stories of his experiences in the " Blossom " with Beechey 

 in 1825-28, and of wild life on the Canadian lakes, where he afterwards 

 served. The two old salts drink together the never-failing sea toast, 

 " Sweethearts and wives," and ask Fitzjames to join them. " Hav'nt got 

 a sweetheart, and don't want a wife," responds Fitzjames, who concludes 

 the entry in his " Journal " for that evening with an affectionate good-night 

 to the Coninghams in England. 



Not yet, for a little while, shall these halcyon days come to an end. 



The sea is calm on the 16th, and Fitzjames and a few more take a boat 

 and look in on the fellows in the " TerKor " to have a few minutes' talk. 

 The 17th is cloudy, and at night a bright light is seen flickering on the 

 verge of the horizon on the north-east. " It may be the aurora," suggests 

 Gore. " What would you say to the ice-blink 1 " asks the weather-wise 

 ice-master. Fitzjames thinks it is the reflection of sunset, and says that it 

 has all the effect of a large town, twenty miles off", on fire. The 18th June 

 is "Waterloo Day," and old Sir John after dinner asks his officers to join 

 him in drinking the health of "the Duke." On the same day the "crow's- 

 nest" is rigged. "It is usually," says Fitzjames, "a cask, lined with 

 canvas, at the fore-topmast head, for a man to stand in to look out for 

 channels in the ice ; " but on board the " Erebus," it is a more elaborate 

 and scientific structure, which somebody names a " hooped cylinder." Ice- 



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