A SCENE OF GKANDEUR. 



539 



Never shall I forget that night. It was very cold, and we sat 

 on the sledge well clothed in furs, while the dogs flew merrily and 

 at their most rapid rate. Occupying a place in the rear of all the 

 rest, where all was clear for action, with the box chronometer un- 

 der my eye, I threw the log every ten minutes, holding the reel 

 up in my right hand.* We all felt the cold severely, and had re- 

 course to various contrivances to keep some warmth in our limbs. 

 No doubt I presented rather a grotesque appearance as I sat with 

 native stockings on my hands now and then instead of outside 

 mittens. Toward midnight we felt the want of shelter and rest ; 

 but, in my own case, all sense of discomfort was banished by the 

 beauty which Nature placed before me. The grandeur of Kin- 

 gaite's grotto mountains that we were leaving behind us, with 

 their contrasts of light and shade, as viewed in the night, and 

 watched as light increased with advancing day, filled my soul 

 with inexpressible delight. It was like beholding a mighty city 

 of cathedrals, monuments, palaces, and castles overthrown by an 

 earthquake, the ruins resting amid mountain drifts of snow. 



At 3 A.M. of the 18th, when near the islands which diversify 

 Frobisher Bay in the locality between M'Lean Island and Chase 

 Island, the sun began to peer out from behind the dark clouds, 

 when we stopped the dogs, threw ourselves flat on the bare snow, 

 and slept soundly for one hour and thirty-five minutes. 



At 8 A.M we arrived at the 18th encampment (which was the 

 same as the tenth), whence we had started on the 8th instant, mak- 

 ing an absence while on this journey of just ten days. The num- 

 ber of miles traveled was 176 nautical, or 203 English miles, this 

 distance having been made in exactly 54 hours and 31 minutes 

 traveling time. 



A brief extract from my notes, written after my return from 

 this journey, reads as follows : 



" Taking my departure from the tenth encampment on May 8, 

 1862, and sledging 176 miles (nautical), now, on my return to same 

 place, my ' dead reckoning' — which has been kept independent of 

 all the astronomical observations taken during the trip — makes 

 the same place differ in latitude miles, and in longitude less 



* See accompanying engraving, and also type on larger scale of sledge-log, line 

 and reel, on page 521, drawn to one sixth of the size of the original. This contriv- 

 ance was made while encamped on the ice in the middle of Frobisher Bay (ninth 

 encampment). The reel was wood, the line a codfish-line, the log a relic of the 

 wrecked Rescue — a ring-bolt, weighing just two pounds, which answered admirably 

 the purpose for which I desired it. 



