suddenly as we had
been struck down. The gale blew itself out, leaving all calm and still,
as if the death-like scenery was incapable of such wild revelry as it
had been enjoying; and again we plodded onwards, parting from the last
supporting sledge on the 6th of May.

Since leaving Cape Walker on the 24th of April, we had gradually
passed, in a distance of sixty miles, from a red sandstone to a
limestone region; the scenery at every mile becoming more and more
monotonous, and less marked by bold outline, cliff, or mountain: as far
as the bay, of which Snow-blind Point formed one extreme, a long range
of hills, soft and rounded in _contour_, faced the sea, and sloped
to it with a gradual inclination, some three miles in length; ravines
became more and more scarce; and after passing the bay, in 100 deg. long.
W., none of any size were to be seen. Drearily monotonous as all Arctic
scenery must naturally be, when one universal mantle of snow makes
earth and water alike, such a tame region as this was, if possible,
more so; and walking along the weary terraces, which in endless
succession swept far into the interior, and then only rose in
diminutive heights of maybe 500 feet, I recalled to memory the like
melancholy aspect of the Arctic shores of Asia as described by Baron
Wrangell.

[Headnote: _ZEAL OF THE MEN._]

The broken and rugged nature of the floes obliged us to keep creeping
along the coast-line, whilst our ignorance of the land ahead, its trend
or direction, occasioned, together with the endless thick weather that
we had until the 14th May, many a weary mile to be trodden over, which
a knowledge of the bays or indentations would have saved us. It was
under such unprofitable labour that the sterling value of our men the
more conspicuously showed itself. Captain Ommanney, myself, and Mr.
Webb of the "Pioneer," (who sooner than be left behind had voluntarily
taken his place as one of the sledge-crew,) were the only three
officers; we were consequently thrown much into the society of the men,
and I feel assured I am not singular in saying that that intercourse
served much to raise our opinion of the character and indomitable
spirit of our seamen and marines. On them fell the hard labour, to us
fell the honours of the enterprise, and to our chief the reward; yet
none equalled the men in cheerfulness and sanguine hopefulness of a
successful issue to our enterprise, without which, of course, energy
would soon have fl