LOOK ON THIS PICTURE AND ON THAT. 525 



Somerville Island, and there landed a store of provisions ; while Lieutenant 

 Mecham, who had been commissioned to examine the south coast of Corn-' 

 wallis Island for traces of Franklin, had the good fortune to discover 

 Assistance Harbour, where were Captain Penny's two brigs and Sir John 

 Ross's " Felix " snugly laid up for the winter. The three lieutenants, on 

 their return in the second week of October, found the ships of the squadron 

 covered with "housings," like tents, and all the usual preparations for 

 wintering in the ice well forward. 



On the 4th November the sun appeared for the last time for ninety-five 

 days. During the previous month, however, the splendours of the successive 

 sunsets had been such as to rouse the enthusiasm of the prosiest observer. 

 " During the latter part of autumn," says Mr Markham, then midshipman 

 in Austin's ship, " the tints in the sky are so magnificent that it would be 

 difficult to draw any comparison with those which we are accustomed to see 

 in other parts of the world. It seems as if the sun displays his most glorious 

 brilliancy in these regions, where his rays brighten the gloomy prospect only 

 for a time, compensating by the increased grandeur of his presence for the 

 long night which is to follow. Oh one side brilliant shades of violet, green, 

 and purple shone forth; while on the other, lake, crimson, orange, and 

 yellow gave a character of more gorgeous splendour to the eastern sky." 

 This glowing description was written in September, and is no doubt truth- 

 ful and sober. The following, written by Sherard Osborn — a fellow officer 

 — a few days, or at most, two or three weeks later, is no doubt equally 

 truthful : " No pen can tell of the unredeemed loneliness of an October 

 evening in this part of the Polar world : the monotonous rounded outline 

 of the adjacent hills, as well as the flat unmeaning valleys, were of one 

 uniform colour, either deadly white with snow, or striped with brown where 

 too steep for the winter mantle as yet to find a holding-ground. You felt 

 pity for the shivering blade of grass, which, at your feet, was already 

 drooping under the cold and icy hand that would press it down to mother 

 earth for nine long months. Talk of ' antres vast and deserts idle ;' talk of 

 the sadness awakened in the wanderer's bosom by lonely scenes, whether 

 by the cursed waters of Judea or the affiicted lands of Assyria — give me, I 

 say, death in any one of them, with the good sun and a bright heaven to 

 whisper hope, rather than the solitary horrors of such scenes as these." 



Active work commenced early in April 1851. On the 4th Mr M'Dougall 

 of the " Resolute " was despatched to inspect and report upon the depdts 

 formed in the autumn of the previous year. This service was undertaken a 

 month earlier in the season than any similar excursion in any former expedi- 

 tion. On arriving at the depdt that had been formed on Somerville Island, 

 M'Dougall found that the tin cases in which the provisions had been 

 packed were torn to ribands and their contents devoured by bears. Even 



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