290 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
thick, you could almost cut it like a cheese,—and thus 
render the sailing among the loose ice very critical 
indeed: then it would fall dead calm, and leave us— 
hours together—muffled in mist, with no other employ¬ 
ment than chess or hopscotch. It was during one of 
those intervals of quiet, that I executed the preceding 
work of art, which is intended to represent Sigurdr, 
in the act of meditating a complicated gambit for the 
Doctor’s benefit. 
About this period Wilson culminated. Ever since 
leaving Bear Island he had been keeping a car¬ 
nival of grief in the pantry, until the cook became 
almost half-witted by reason of his Jeremiads. Yet 
I must not give you the impression that the poor 
fellow was the least wanting in jpluck —far from it. 
Surely it requires the highest order of courage to 
anticipate every species of disaster every moment of 
the day, and yet to meet the impending fate like a 
man—as he did. Was it his fault, that fate was not 
equally ready to meet him? His share of the business 
was always done: he was ever prepared for the worst; 
but the most critical circumstances never disturbed the 
gravity of his carriage, and the fact of our being 
