had been looking through his glass intently for | Death, as he stood there shrouded in his icy some moments, turned to me abruptly: "Skaites! By Heavens I see the land on the opposite shore! Here, take my glass-it bears S.W. by S.-quick, while there's light enough —an outline scarcely to be seen-Cape Parry, on the North Coast of America, I'll swear!" I took the telescope, and looked long and earnestly in the direction pointed out, and at last perceived a dim haze along the southern horizon, which the skipper positively declared was land. If so, it must have been full fifty miles distant. But I could hardly credit it. I could not believe that our enterprise had been so successful. If yonder speck was land, it must form part of the American Coast. Our object was then accomplished! The Northwest Passage was discovered! When the summer came round it would not be impossible to trace the shores, which we now saw before us, westward to Behring's Straits, in a single season-the distance, according to our calculation, being little more than eight hundred miles. The sun had set. He had sunk in a fiery redness, which betokened a coming storm. We hastened to return to our winter-quarters, well satisfied with the result of our expedition. But it was now no easy matter to proceed; for a piercing gale from the north sprang up, which, blowing directly on our faces, impeded our progress. We toiled on. About midnight the wind had risen to a hurricane, and the snow drifted round us in the whirlwind, so that we lost our track and wandered hither and thither. It was impossible to take any observation. Though not dark we could not see a yard ahead, for the snow blinded us. I was afterward told that the mercury during the night fell as low as minus 22°, so some idea may be formed of our sufferings. Toward morning my companions showed symptoms of giving way. It was in vain that I urged them to proceed-they were completely exhausted. I shouted to them through the roaring of the storm, that, if they paused an instant, they were lost beyond all redemption. This revived them to a certain extent, but not permanently. We had been obliged to leave our provisions behind us, finding it impossible to drag them after us on the sledge which we had constructed for the purpose, so that death stared us in the face from all quarters. About six A.M. the weakest of our party fell down. We raised him up, shook and beat him; but it was of no use. He became insensible directly, and in this condition we were forced to leave him in order to save our own lives. Half an hour afterward the two others dropped, and the Captain and myself were left to pursue our journey alone. He seized my hand and grasped it nervously. I knew well what the pressure meant he felt that his hour was come. Was there no hope? At last he fell. Worn out myself with suffering, and maddened with despair, I too felt the presence of our last great enemy, and sank down beside my friend. What years of misery I suffered in that passing moment conquered in body, but battling yet in spirit with mantle! How awful was it to die upon that desolate land, where man had never trodden until we had taken possession of it for our graves! No earthly sepulchre was to be ours, but the everlasting snow-burying us even now, while yet alive! For successive ages it would still keep on piling layer over layer, until at last a stupendous monument of this drifted snow would cover our bodies, and mark where we died. Perhaps its summit might catch the rosy tints of the setting sun. It soothed me to think so. My sensations became less painful-imagination wandered homeward to the banks of the Hudson. How green and fresh the fields were! was it a dream? If so, how delicious to dream thus for-for-for -ever; and as consciousness ebbed and flowed ebbed and flowed-there came a glare of light, flashing fitfully before my eyes; and then strange figures moved backward and forward, but I thought I recognized the voices. I was brought back to life. I awoke with a desperate struggle for breath. It was dark, save where the dim light of three oil lamps suspended from the ceiling, sufficed to render the darkness visible, and betrayed the anxious faces of my old companions grouped around me, watching my resuscitation. I was again in our own encampment. I felt an intense pain dart through my joints and limbs, and would gladly have relapsed into a state of utter insensibility. My first questions were after the Captain. Was he safe? The old boatswain shook his head mournfully. "Ah, Mr. Skaites, you've had a narrow escape; they were all frozen to death but you." And so it was. Our brave Captain, who had been the soul of the enterprise-who had brought us thus far, and on whom we all more or less depended, was gone, and our small company was now reduced to twenty-three men. The fact was, that on the evening of the storm half a dozen of the crew had left Succor Bay (for this was the name we had given to the place where the "Northern Light" was frozen up) to search for us. They too were out all the night on their merciful errand, but, more warmly clad and less fatigued than we, they were enabled to withstand the cold. They searched for ten hours, and discovered us at last, accidentally, as they were returning home under the impression that we had either found shelter or had perished in the snow. A few yards from where I lay they found their comrades, cold and stiffened corpses even then. No other resource was there but to leave them in their unhallowed tomb, shrouded already in the grave-clothes which the Storm-fiend had prepared. It was more than a week before I was able to move about. I recollect the day well that I ventured into the keen frosty air-it was on the 17th of November. I mark the time, because we witnessed then a brilliant solar phenomenon. Many who hear me describe this will imagine it a fabrication, but those who have traveled in northern latitudes will know that I am strictly speaking the truth. Sir John Ross, who wintered in Prince than any we had yet experienced-and I was muffled up warmly, yet I shuddered and shivered, and crept back into my den, cowed by the wild fancies which that midnight scene had summon Regent's inlet that season, describes a scene | less blank surrounds you! Where is your hope somewhat similar. To us, the sun seemed ten-where is your courage-where is your energy or fifteen times its ordinary size, and of a dark now? It was comparatively a mild night-milder crimson color. A black spot in its centre resembled a hand grasping a dagger, or some other weapon of similar dimensions. From the edge of the sun's disc started forth myriads of daggers in every direction, making the whole look like aned up! enormous asterisk. I can find no other simile. November passed, and with it the sun. A long Our men, naturally superstitious, regarded this as an unfavorable omen. Nor were their fears lessened after sunset, when the aurora sprang into life, and gliding through the sky with the rapidity of lightning, left in its track what seemed to us a ghastly array of skeletons, standing out pale and phantom-like from the dark blue clouds in the background, which stretched away toward the north. Grim figures they were, which took every imaginable shape, and seemed always to point threateningly toward our ship, as she lay between two huge masses of ice, frozen up in the bay beneath. More or less impressed with these strange phenomena, we all sought rest that night with drooping spirits. I was suffering great pain, and felt nervous and uneasy; and leaving my companions to sleep, I crawled out through the doorway once more into the open air. A spectacle of surpassing grandeur-that mass of pale, unearthly light, as it flashed over the vast expanse above, darting from one extent of heaven to the other! Now brooding over the sea-now on the land-settling on the peaks of innumerable hills-as though it would say, See! what an end winter and a long night were now to be our portion. But we were not unprepared. Some of our men on their hunting excursions had killed five deer; six seals and one bear had also been shot upon the ice. The skins of these animals proved very serviceable to sleep on. Moreover, fresh meat was not to be despised, although we were not in want, or likely to be in want, of food Cooking was the most difficult of our domestic labors; but when pushed, it is astonishing what apparently insurmountable obstacles can be overcome. We had collected by this time a large store of drift-wood, that we valued more than we should have valued mountains of gold. Searching parties were sent out daily to add to the stock, and though they often returned with a very insignificant piece, and sometimes with none at all, yet we had enough, if used sparingly, to last us during the winter None of course can be discovered at this season, for the little that is scattered along the coast is then covered with eight or ten feet of snow. We used to steep several small pieces in oil, and when well saturated they would burn long enough to answer our purposes. Besides these we had two small spirit lamps, use- | givings about their safety, and when the morning ful for melting snow, and plenty of oil lamps, with which our hut was heated. We all slept together in the largest hut for warmth, one of the others being set apart for our stores, as we at first intended, and the second used as a kitchen. Thus prepared, as far as our limited means would permit, we looked forward with no slight anxiety to the more rigorous months of winter. of the 5th arrived, and they had not returned, I resolved to start at once with the remainder of my companions in search of the lost party. We were not long in making our preparations, and left our now deserted camp with the sickening foreboding that our search would prove futile, and perhaps fatal to ourselves. The men kept up their courage admirably. Over the frozen snow December set in fiercely enough. On the first the traveling was good, and we pushed on westof the month we caught a glimpse of the sun-award, with the moon shining brightly overhead, small portion appearing for an instant, but being until twelve o'clock, midnight, when we halted, soon eclipsed by a dark cloud that lay along and encamped to enjoy a few hours' rest. By the southern horizon, we saw him no more that four o'clock A.M. we were again en route, and at season. We calculated on six weeks of dark- six arrived abruptly at the termination of the land, ness-not total darkness, for the moon shone which rose precipitously about five hundred feet bright and clear, as it always does in those frozen along the coast. From hence westward, as far latitudes. We had as yet discovered no trace of as the eye could reach, we beheld nothing but a Esquimaux-it must be remembered that we had frozen sea, and this fully established that the land not traveled further than thirty or forty miles we had discovered was bounded on the north, from the ship-nor had we seen any symptom east, and west by water. that the south shore, along which we had coasted westward from Prince Regent's inlet, was at all inhabited. It is true that we did not land, ex-lems. Our Captain, who had been the life of the cept on two occasions after running into small bays when the wind was dead against us, but we always kept a good look-out, and never found aught to induce the belief that man had ventured so far north. On Saturday, the 25th of December (Christmas-day), a dozen of the crew, weary of this monotonous life, asked permission to explore. I gave my consent, because I thought some excitement was necessary in order to keep them in health; for if health failed us, our doom was certain. The weather too was very favorable. Twelve of our party accordingly started off with leave of absence for a week. Their determination was to travel due west, in the expectation of discovering a frozen sea in that direction. This had been our unfortunate Captain's idea. He always thought that the land on which we had settled was an island, and that the lofty cape whence we had seen the distant coast of America, was its southern extremity. This point it seems has been recently established by Captain M-Clure, who, during the years 1850 and 1851, sailed almost entirely round, and gave it the name of "Baring's Island." I was not aware of this fact until I read his dispatches the other day in the newspapers. However, the party started off on the morning of the 26th, in excellent spirits, provided with stores sufficient to last a fortnight, a chronometer, a compass, and in fact every thing that could be of service on such an expedition. There were only ten of us left in Succor Bay. The weather continued clear and bright, but the cold was intense, and on New Year's eve the thermometer marked 32° minus. The first day of the year 1830 passed drearily away. On the 3d of January I felt a little anxious about our friends, who had already exceeded their leave of absence. On the 4th, I ascended a hill, distant from our encampment some three or four miles, to see whether they were in sight, but I could discover no trace of them. I had now great mis But now we were seeking our lost companions, not the solution of geographical or scientific prob enterprise, and who had imbued us all with a portion of his own spirit of adventure, was dead already. Like him, I once had a desire to explore these unknown shores and unnavigable seas. But this desire had vanished. The reality was more awful than any of us had anticipated. Partially provided with the means for supporting the inclemency of a Polar winter-in a country producing not even a tree-not a stunted shrub that we could turn to account-our sufferings were intense. A summer's sun or a summer's breeze seemed to us like some fabled vision of the past, never to be recalled. What would we not have given then for the sight of a green field, or to have been once more upon the ocean, though it were in the midst of the most terrific storm the 'Northern Light" had ever weathered? 66 Great as our miseries had been, they were trivial to what we endured now. No sight, not a trace of our friends. For six days we searched along the coast, and at last were forced to give them up as lost, and return homeward. Their fate was shrouded in mystery. Had they encountered hostile Esquimaux, and been murdered? Surely twelve Europeans of the reckless bravery of our men would have defended themselves against any odds. Had they wandered north, and been unable to find their way back to Succor Bay? Such a supposition was highly improbable; for the weather during the last three weeks had been so clear that we might easily have distinguished their tracks along the snow. Had they died of hunger, or were they frozen to death upon this shore, where the wind from the Polar Sea blew so bitterly? Such questions we asked one another, but none could offer any answer. We gave up the search, wearied and desponding, and turning homeward, reached our encampment on the fifteenth. From the summit of the hill in rear of the bay, we saw the sun for the first time this year. It was only for a moment that the upper part of his disc was seen above the ho rizon-a rising and, at the same time, a setting sun. A glorious scene it was! Gorgeous coloring indeed! But what a mockery to us these summer tints, as we contrasted them with the bay below us, where stood our home. Over it the adjoining hills had cast a gloomy shade; and as we descended into the darkness, it seemed the darkness of despair. Day after day, week after week, month after month passed away in the same dreary monotony, until summer came round once more, and found us waiting for the ice to break up, and release us from our imprisonment. This hope renewed our energy and revived our drooping spirits. We had spent a great portion of our time during the winter months in hunting; and when June set in we were amply supplied with provisions, and all in very good health. The winter, on the whole, had not been severe; and we expected to be once more upon the water by the end of July. We employed our time now in carefully overhauling the ship. This was satisfactorily concluded by the 20th of June, and on the next day we purposed removing our stores from the snow hut, where they had lain during the previous nine months. The ship's boats were still on the beach, as they were left the season before. With the prospect of a speedy release, our spirits would have been quite restored, could our lost friends have been excluded from our memories forever. It was our intention, as soon as the sea was sufficiently free from ice, to steer southward for the American shore; and if we found it impossible to coast as far as Behring Straits-a distance of some seven or eight hundred miles-to abandon the ship, and travel by land. The latter scheme was by no means impracticable; for it was well known that there, at least, some tribes of Esquimaux could be found, from whom we might obtain assistance. On the 30th of June, as I have said, we were seated in our hut, arranging our duties for the next day. The weather had been very mild of late, and the snow was melting rapidly. This evening the thermometer ranged at various periods from plus 30° to 35°. About nine o'clock it commenced blowing rather freshly, but the sky was clear. I went out myself shortly after, and found the wind rising. At midnight it increased to a hurricane. The sky would have been still perfectly clear, were it not for a few scattered clouds driven madly athwart it. How the wind shrieked that night as it careered wildly over the vast area of frozen waters-how it burst ever and anon into our recess, and swept round the bay, howling for escape! Then away again-heaving up large masses of ice in its fury-seeking some object for destruction! The very hills around were trembling to their base. Hark! Louder than the roar of thunder was that crash-the sea How is loosened from its thralldom-its waves rise up | spot where once had stood my home. -huge icebergs are hurled one against the other. changed it was! I thought that the mountains Our ship! Our ship! Now perched upon the were all swept away, and the valleys filled up; summit of a rocking berg, she is seen to reel and and stretched out before me was a wide extended stagger to and fro-she disappears-lost to us plain, covered with snow. Far away in the disforever. Our ship! Our ship! Where are our tance rose a gigantic rock of granite. It seemed hopes now? of marvelous size, for it towered up to the very I can not describe the scene-a midnight scene heavens. And while I looked and wondered, it beneath the glare of a meridian sun-a sight sel- began to tremble, and then to rock to and fro, as dom witnessed before by man-which the most though shaken by some supernatural power. vivid imagination could not paint. Like feathers Presently it heaved convulsively, and I saw that blown hither and thither by the wind, those mount-it was moving toward me! It came slowly onains of ice were tossed upon the angry waves. crushing all in its path. Man and beast, animate Ocean bursting open its prison-doors-resuming and inanimate nature were alike leveled before it. its power-Ocean triumphant. Our small company standing aghast-awe-struck-humbled crushed. Its speed increased as it rolled along. I stood there horrified-awe-struck-witnessing this annihilating and mysterious power. On-on-on No, not crushed; for we were nerved by de- it came-faster and faster at every revolutionspair. Hope had not altogether left us. We had shaking the earth. It seemed to fill all space, so our boats-there was yet a chance of reaching the that there was not a chance of escape. I was American coast. We worked day and night en-rooted to the spot, unable to stir. See! Crushed ergetically, arranged the larger one-a whalingboat-and waited impatiently for the ice to clear away. It drifted in large fields for three weeks after the storm. To put to sea during this time would have insured our destruction. At last, on the 2d of August, Succor Bay was comparatively clear, and we resolved to launch our whaling-boat. Having stowed on board as large a quantity of provisions as it could conveniently hold, we embarked at one P.M., with the wind N.E. by E., and hoisting our solitary sail, bade adieu forever to the spot which had sheltered us during ten long dreary months. We coasted along the shore, now free from ice, and by eight P.M. reached its southern extremity-the precipitous peak of which I have already spoken. The wind there slackened, and we made but little way during the night, plying at times the oar. Expecting to reach the opposite shore by the third day at furthest, we steered as near as pc sible for that point of land which the skipper and I had indistinctly seen from the summit of the Cape-our course being S. W. by S. It was the evening of our second day out. The thermometer marked 5° below the freezing point -the mercury having fallen several degrees during the previous hour. These sudden changes of temperature, as is well known, are quite common in Polar latitudes. I thought this evening that we were in the vicinity of ice, but as the atmosphere was thick and foggy, we were unable to ascertain whether this was or was not the case. The sea, however, was calm, and imagining ourselves near the land,' we did not anticipate any danger. Wearied as I was, I stretched myself on some seal skins in the bow of the boat, and there soon forgot recollections of the past, and fears for the future. I slept; and in my sleep there rose up before me a vision, so startling in its semblance of reality, that, though years of excitement, and cares, and troubles have passed away since then, it lives in my memory still, and must live there forever. I dreamed that I had escaped from these ice-bound regions, and after much peril and difficulty had arrived near the beneath its weight were houses-villages-cities. I looked around wildly-no aid was nigh. I crouched down, and hid my face between my hands in an agony of terror. Again I looked up. Onward, still onward rolled that huge mass-the sun was now on its ridge-now hidden behind it nearer and nearer it came-enveloped in its shadow, it was almost touching me.. Oh, mercy! I shrieked and awoke! Cowering down in the bottom of the boat were my companions; some on their knees, others helpless with fear. I looked round instinctively for the cause. Great God! save us now! Looming through the dense mist-on either side, and not a dozen yards apart—were two stupendous icebergs, drawn together by an irresistible attraction. I had only time to think an instantaneous prayer when the crash came. I almost felt the grinding together of those two mountains of ice the realization of my dream. I heard with painful distinctness the shrieks of my companions, and then I was in the water, shivering, gasping in its cold depths. I struggled for life rose to the top-clutched hold desperately of a large floe, clambered up its rugged surface, and there found myself yet alive, only to regret that I had not died with my friends. How to account for my miraculous escape I know not, unless it be that the boat's bow, in which I was sleeping, projected so that the stern alone, where the men were seated, lay between the bergs when the collision took place. My hopes of ultimate relief were faint indeed. My only chance was, that, if near the coast, I might possibly reach it on the ice. But what a straw to grasp! Even if I succeeded in this, but failed in discovering Esquimaux, I must perish with hunger. The atmosphere, too, continued thick and foggy, so that I could not see a dozen yards ahead. The floe on which I lay was about four feet square on the top, rising up pyramidically some twelve or fourteen from the water. Hour after hour passed by. In vain I strained my eyes toward every point of the compass. I could see nothing, not a particle of ice. Even |