DRIFT WINTER. 
225 
escarpment, which ran back into a gray distance — a 
sort of gorge, with a summer water-course. Further 
off, Point Innes again, and the shingle beach of ' the 
G-raves ;' and a high bluff-like cape or headland to the 
southward and westward, which the captain supposes 
to be Barlow's Inlet. 
" 10 P.M. Our master got an observation this even- 
ing of a Aquila (circum-meridian altitude), giving us 
a latitude of 74° 54' 07". The seat of our late resting- 
place was in latitude 75° 24' 52" N. "We have there- 
fore voyaged 30 miles 45 seconds since this new start. 
At this rate, should the wind continue, another day 
will carry us again into Lancaster Sound. 
"October 8. Still we drift. Barlow's Inlet is near- 
* ly abreast of us, and Cape Hotham seen distinctly. 
The broad, unterminated expanse of ice to the south 
IS Lancaster Sound, sixty miles distant when we first 
began our prisoner's journey. Thermometer at +8°. 
" To-day seemed like a wave of the handkerchief 
from our receding summer. Winter is in every thing. 
Yet the skies came back to us with warm ochres and 
pinks, and the sun, albeit from a lowly altitude, shone 
out in full brightness. It was a mockery of warmth, 
however, scarcely worthy the unpretending sincerity 
of the great planet ; for the mercury, exposed to the 
full radiance of his deceitful glare, rose but two de- 
grees: from +7° to 9°. In spite of this, the day was 
beautiful to remember, as a type of the sort of thing 
which we once shared with the world from which we 
are shut out ; a parting picture, to think about during 
the long night. These dark days, or rather the dark 
day, will soon be on us. The noon shadows of our 
long masts almost lose themselves in the distance. 
" A little white fox was canght alive in a trap this 
P 
