108 
VOYAGE FOE THE DISCOVERY 
1819. bear, which followed his footsteps the whole way to the ships, where he was 
wounded by several balls, but made his escape after all. This bear, which 
Mon - J - was the only one we saw during our stay in Winter Harbour, was observed 
to be more purely white than any we had before seen, the colour of these 
animals being generally that of a dirtyish yellow, when contrasted with the 
whiteness of the ice and snow. 
On the night of the 4th, we had a strong gale from the southward, which 
gave us a satisfactory proof of the security of the harbour we had chosen, 
for the main ice / was found in the morning to have pressed in very forcibly 
upon that which was newly formed near the entrance, while within the 
two points of the harbour, it remained perfectly solid and undisturbed. 
Some deer being seen near the ships on the 10th, a party was despatched 
after them, some of whom having wounded a stag, and being led on by the 
ardour of pursuit, forgot my order that every person should be on-board 
before sun-set, and did not return till late, after we had suffered much ap- 
prehension on their account. I, therefore, directed that the expense of all 
rockets and other signals made in such cases, should, in future, be charged 
against the wages of the offending party. John Pearson, amarine belongingto 
the Griper, who was the last that returned on board, had his hands severely 
frost-bitten, having imprudently gone away without mittens, and with a 
musket in his hand. A party of our people most providentially found him, 
although the night was very dark, just as he had fallen down a steep bank 
of snow, and was beginning to feel that degree of torpor and drowsi- 
ness which, if indulged, inevitably proves fatal. When he was brought on 
board, his fingers were quite stiff, and bent into the shape of that part of the 
musket which he had been carrying : and the frost had so far destroyed the 
animation in his fingers on one hand, that it was necessary to amputate three 
of them a short time after, notwithstanding all the care and attention paid to 
him by the medical gentlemen. The effect which exposure to severe frost 
has, in benumbing the mental as well as the corporeal faculties, was very 
striking in this man, as well as in two of the young gentlemen who returned 
after dark, and of whom we were anxious to make inquiries respecting 
Pearson. When I sent for them into my cabin, they looked wild, spoke 
thick and indistinctly, and it was impossible to draw from them a rational 
answer to any of our questions. After being on board for a short time, the 
mental faculties appeared gradually to return with the returning circulation, 
and it was not till then that a looker-on could easily persuade himself that 
