OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
187 
together with a little medicine, the complaint was soon removed. It is scarcely 1820. 
possible perhaps to imagine the comfort which was afforded in this instance 
by the small quantity of fuel we were provided with, as it enabled us to 
furnish Captain Sabine with one or two warm messes which chiefly contri- 
buted to his recovery ; and we, therefore, determined to use no more of our 
wood except under similar circumstances. 
It continued to blow and snow till seven P.M., when the wind having 
veered to the S.W., and become more moderate, we struck the tents ; and 
having now placed the men’s knapsacks on the cart to enable them to drag 
with greater facility, we proceeded on our journey to the northward. We 
passed a narrow but deep ravine lying across our course, in some parts of 
which the snow reached nearly to a level with the banks, forming a kind of 
bridges or causeways, on one of which we crossed without difficulty. The 
men had hoisted one sail upon the cart at first setting off; but the wind being 
now, as they expressed it “ on the larboard quarter,” a second blanket was 
rigged as a main-sail, to their great amusement as well as relief. 
After crossing a second ravine, on the north side of which the ground rose 
considerably, we entered upon another snowy plain, where there was nothing 
to be seen in any direction but snow and sky. To make it the more dreary, 
a thick fog came on as the night advanced, and as this prevented our taking 
any mark more than fifty or a hundred yards a-head, we had to place the 
compass, by which we were now entirely travelling, upon the ground every 
five minutes ; and as it traversed with great sluggishness, we made a 
very crooked and uncertain course. For more than two hours we did not 
pass a single spot of uncovered ground, nor even a stone projecting above 
the snow. 
The weather being at length too foggy to proceed, we sat down on our Mon. 5. 
knapsacks for a short time, and then continued our journey, the fog being 
somewhat less thick. At one A.M., we came to a few large stones sticking 
up above the snow, and as the people were a good deal fatigued, and I was 
at the same time desirous not to run the risk which might be incurred by 
suffering them to lie upon the snow, we determined to try what could be 
done in picking out the stones, one by one, and paving a spot for the tents 
over it. This plan succeeded, and after an hour’s work we completed a dry, 
though hard flooring for our encampment. This being properly our dinner- 
time for the 4th of June, though our meal had been unavoidably delayed 
beyond that day, we did not forget to drink His Majesty’s health in both 
2 B 2 
