28 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



person then wrote his notes of the daily 

 occurrences, and evening prayers were read ; 

 as soon as supper was prepared it was eaten, 

 generally in the dark, and we went to bed, 

 and kept up a cheerful conversation until 

 our blankets were thawed by the heat of 

 our bodies, and we had gathered sufficient 

 warmth to enable us to fall asleep. On 

 many nights we had not even the luxury of 

 going to bed in dry clothes, for when the 

 fire was insufficient to dry our shoes, we 

 durst not venture to pull them off, lest they 

 should freeze so hard as to be unfit to put 

 on in the morning, and therefore inconve- 

 nient to carry. 



On the 20th we got into a hilly country, 

 and the marching became much more labo- 

 rious, even the stoutest experienced great 

 difficulty in climbing the craggy eminences. 

 Mr. Hood was particularly weak, and was 

 obliged to relinquish his station of second 

 in the line, which Dr. Richardson now took, 

 to direct the leading man in keeping the 

 appointed course. I was also unable to 

 keep pace with the men, who put forth their 



