THE SEARCH CONTINUED. 



231 



on reaching it, he would then know where he should direct his 

 steps. But, alas ! too soon he turns in another — a wrong direc- 

 tion. 



" His tracks by eleven o'clock A.M. showed that he was lost. 

 Up to this hour it was evident to us that John had in mind near- 

 ly the proper direction in which the harbor of the vessel lay. It 

 is true that now and then his tracks led in a direction that indi- 

 cated doubt, but mainly otherwise. When John Brown first 

 made Field Bay, passing from the land over which he had just 

 come from Frobisher Bay, it must have been nine o'clock last 

 night. He could have been but a little in advance of the sledge 

 party he had left in Frobisher Bay. Hence it was not by daylight 

 that 'he was struggling to reach the vessel ; for, not being used to 

 traveling alone, nor familiar with the route, and it being by night 

 he was traveling, no wonder at his deviations as indicated to us 

 up to the hour I have named, to wit, eleven o'clock A.M. But 

 at this hour I exclaimed, ' See ! see ! he who made those tracks was* 

 lost? They were tortuous, zigzag, circular, this way and that — 

 every way but the right way. 



"At length John took a course S.S.W., leading him obliquely 

 to the opposite side of the bay from where the vessel lay. How 

 our hearts ached at this. Making, finally, a large circular sweep 

 — having perhaps seen the dark, black, buttress-like mountains be- 

 fore him, which he must have known were not on the side of the 

 bay he wished to make — he then took a S.S.E. course, which was 

 the proper one, had he not been making the southing which he 

 had. But this he did not long follow. Another and another 

 bend in his steps, all leading him out of the way. 



"I here state that, in following the tortuous tracks leading- 

 southwesterly, Sam Wilson and Morgan continued a direct course 

 southeast. Soon the alarm was raised tflft Sam and Morgan had 

 sighted the object of our search. We looked in that direction, and 

 concluded they had, for they were under a full run. A piece of 

 dark-colored ice, raised up from the main, had, however, deceived 

 them. 



" On, on we followed the steps of the lost for miles, leading gen- 

 erally southeast. 



" Some distance ahead of me and William Johnston were Mor- 

 gan, Sam Wilson, and ' Fluker.' I felt that I was acting the ju- 

 dicious part, and therefore kept up a rapid walk — a gait that I 

 could sustain for hours. Occasionally I cast my eyes back. 



