244 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



1822 - alarming change took place, rendered his death, or rather the convulsive 

 struggles which for some hours preceded that event, a dreadful trial to poor 

 Reid, whose state had for some time past been scarcely better, the difficulty 

 in his breathing having increased to a most distressing degree. Worn out as 

 he was by bodily suffering and extreme debility, it is probable that the de- 

 pression of spirits occasioned by Souter's death served to hasten his own 



Wed. 26. dissolution, which took place about the same hour the following evening. 

 The slow degrees, by which Reid's death had been long approaching, had 

 served in some measure to prepare his mind for'that awful event ; though like 

 other consumptive persons, he would sometimes entertain very sanguine 

 hopes of his recovery, and this he continued to do till about the time of 

 Souter's illness. When Souter was dying, Reid remarked that he should not 

 be long after him ; and on the 26th, when Mr. Fisher had attended and 

 prayed with him, he said that he should go at one bell, (half-past six) and 

 then enumerated all his clothes to one of the men, who at his request wrote 

 them down for him. After four o'clock he did not speak, and gradually sink- 

 ing expired at the time he had mentioned. 



Frid. 28. ' On the 28th, the remains of our deceased shipmates were committed to 

 the earth, with every solemnity that so mournful an occasion demanded. 

 They were interred in one grave, on a rising ground a few hundred yards 

 from the sea to the north-eastward of the ships. A handsome tomb of stone 

 and mortar was built over the spot, having at one end a stone let in, with the 

 usual information engraved on it. The sides were plaistered with a kind of 

 viscous clay found in one of the ponds, and the top covered with tufts of the 

 purple saxifrage. The duties of the ships now permitting it, Captain Lyon 

 employed his men in building a similar tomb over the grave of Pringle. 



Scarcely had these melancholy duties been performed when the wind, 

 which had been stationary at south for several hours, began to veer a little 

 to the westward and the weather gradually to clear up ; and by six P.M. 

 a fresh breeze blew from the W.S.W., so that we had now every reason 

 to expect an almost immediate opening of the ice. It is remarkable that 

 previous to this change the winds had been almost constantly between the 

 S.E. and E.N.E. for ten days ; a circumstance we had never before expe- 

 rienced in these seas, and which certainly produced more melting than a 

 period of two months would have done with the wind to the northward 

 and westward. The alteration which the surface of the land had undergone 

 in this interval is indeed almost inconceivable, except to those who have 



