OF THE POLAR SEA. 



69 



he also said that if he should be able, he 

 would go and search for Vaillant and Cre- 

 dit; and he requested my permission to 

 take yaillant's blanket, if he should find it, 

 4<f which I agreed, and mentioned it in my 

 notes to the officers. 



Scarcely were these arrangements finished 

 before Perrault and Fontano were seized 

 with a fit of^^iness, and betrayed other 



was quickly prepared for them, and after 

 drinking it, and eating a few morsels of 

 burnt leather, they recovered, and expressed 

 their desire to go forward ; but the other 

 men, alarmed at what they had just witness- 

 ed, became doubtful of their own strength, 

 and, giving way to absolute dejection, de- 

 clared their inability to move. I now ear- 

 nestly pressed upon them the necessity of 

 continuing our journey, as the only means 

 of saving their own lives, as well as those 

 of our friends at the tent ; and, after much 

 entreaty, got them to set out at ten A.M. : 

 Belanger and Michel were left at the en- 

 campment, and proposed to start shortly 



debility. Some tea 



