OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
125 
unfrequently occurred during the winter, the scene was such as to induce 1819. 
contemplations, which had, perhaps, more of melancholy than of any other 
feeling. Not an object was to be seen on which the eye could long rest with 
pleasure, unless when directed to the spot where the ships lay, and where 
our little colony was planted. The smoke which there issued from the 
several fires, affording a certain indication of the presence of man, gave a 
partial cheerfulness to this part of the prospect ; and the sound of voices 
which, during the cold weather, could be heard at a much greater distance 
than usual, served now and then to break the silence which reigned around 
us, a silence far different from that peaceable composure which characterizes 
the landscape of a cultivated country ; it was the death-like stillness of the 
most dreary desolation, and the total absence of animated existence. Such, 
indeed, was the want of objects to afford relief to the eye or amusement to 
the mind, that a stone of more than usual size appearing above the snow, in 
the direction in which we were going, immediately became a mark, on which 
our eyes were unconsciously fixed, and towards which we mechanically ad- 
vanced. 
Dreary as such a scene must necessarily be, it could not, however, be 
said to be wholly wanting in interest, especially when associated in the 
mind with the peculiarity of our situation, the object which had brought 
us hither, and the hopes which the least sanguine among us sometimes en- 
tertained, of spending a part of our next winter in the more genial climate 
of the South-Sea Islands. Perhaps, too, though none of us then ventured to 
confess it, our thoughts would sometimes involuntarily wander homewards, 
and institute a comparison between the rugged face of nature in this desolate 
region, and the livelier aspect of the happy land which we had left behind us. 
We had frequent occasion, in our walks on shore, to remark the deception 
which takes place in estimating the distance and magnitude of objects, when 
viewed over an unvaried surface of snoAv. It was not uncommon for us to 
direct our steps towards what we took to be a large mass of stone, at the 
distance of half a mile from us, but which we were able to take up in our 
hands after one minute’s Avalk. This was more particularly the case, when 
ascending the brow of a hill, nor did we find that the deception became 
less, on account of the frequency with Avhich we experienced its effects. 
In the afternoon, the men were usually occupied in drawing and knotting 
yarns, and in making points and gaskets ; a never-failing resource, Avhere 
mere occupation is required, and which it was necessary to perform entirely 
