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. 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

November passed, and with it the sun. A long 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.

but now we were seeking at øst montacómos de soution of gençtan & Kette pris江路 Juristen 10 lat tem de la uî de FIDATUM. KUI Vis tar mower is al with a pre22 để 118 3W1 spot of aventure, was dead Lise sum. I ince hat a feste a expe these manowa dotes and stangacie seas. But thus deare bad vasted. The reality was more wi na ay if us had anticipated. Parony promed with the means for supporting the 2cemency of a Fuar water—in a country producng not even a tree-out a stunted shrub that we estud turn to account-or stings were in

A summer's sun or a summer's treeze seemed to us like some filed vince of the past. never to be recalled What would we not have gres then for the sight of a green Seid, or to have been one more upon the ocean, though it were in the midst of the most terrie storm the Northern LightTM had ever weathered *

On turtag the 25th of December Tire malay, a form of the cry of this munshinena is aut permumon to explore I quse my onent secure i tungt we re test watermary in order to keep them m heart, for if beach filled us our doom was certam. The weather too was very favorable. Twere dva party wearing, werd df wat leave of Their determination was to travel doe 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 Great as our miseries had been, they were trivlavend, and that the lofty cape whence we had al to what we endured now. No sight, not a ween the distant const of America, was its south-trace of our friends. For six days we searched em 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 & 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 322 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

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 en-
countered hostile Esquimaux, and been murdered "
Surely twelve Europeans of the reckless bravery
ofour 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 an-
other, but none could offer any answer.

We gave up the search, wearied and despond-
ing, and turning homeward, reached our encamp-
ment 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-

is loosened from its thralldom-its waves rise up | spot where once had stood my home. How -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 gigantic rock of granite. It seemed hopes now? of marvelous size, for it towered up to the very heavens. And while I looked and wondered, it began to tremble, and then to rock to and fro, as though shaken by some supernatural power. Presently it heaved convulsively, and I saw that it was moving toward me! It came slowly on— crushing all in its path. Man and beast, animate and inanimate nature were alike leveled before it. Its speed increased as it rolled along. I stood there horrified-awe-struck-witnessing this annihilating and mysterious power. On-on-on it came-faster and faster at every revolutionshaking the earth. It seemed to fill all space, so that there was not a chance of escape. I was

I can not describe the scene-a midnight scene beneath the glare of a meridian sun-a sight seldom witnessed before by man-which the most vivid imagination could not paint. Like feathers blown hither and thither by the wind, those mountains of ice were tossed upon the angry waves. Ocean bursting open its prison-doors-resuming its power-Ocean triumphant. Our small company standing aghast-awe-struck-humbled crushed.

No, not crushed; for we were nerved by despair. Hope had not altogether left us. We had our boats-there was yet a chance of reaching the 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 po 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