endship than he. The port was not then
blocked up with ice that the east winds generally heaped up there;
the earth, intersected with peaks, offered at their summits graceful
undulations of snow. The house and lantern erected by James Ross were
still in a tolerable state of preservation; but the provisions seemed
to have been ransacked by foxes and bears, the recent traces of which
were easily distinguished. Men, too, had had something to do with
the devastation, for a few remains of Esquimaux huts remained upon
the shores of the Bay. The six graves inclosing the remains of the
six sailors of the _Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_ were
recognisable by a slight swelling of the ground; they had been
respected both by men and animals. In placing his foot for the first
time on boreal land, the doctor experienced much emotion. It is
impossible to imagine the feelings with which the heart is assailed
at the sight of the remains of houses, tents, huts, and magazines
that Nature so marvellously preserves in those cold countries.

"There is that residence," he said to his companions, "which James
Ross himself called the Camp of Refuge; if Franklin's expedition had
reached this spot, it would have been saved. There is the engine which
was abandoned here, and the stove at which the crew of the _Prince
Albert_ warmed themselves in 1851. Things have remained just as they
were, and any one would think that Captain Kennedy had only left
yesterday. Here is the long boat which sheltered him and his for a
few days, for this Kennedy, separated from his ship, was in reality
saved by Lieutenant Bellot, who braved the October temperature in
order to go to his assistance."

"I knew that brave and worthy officer," said Johnson.

Whilst the doctor was examining with all an antiquarian's enthusiasm
the vestiges of previous winterings, Hatteras was occupied in piling
together the various provisions and articles of fuel, which were only
to be found in very small quantities. The following day was employed
in transporting them on board. The doctor, without going too far from
the ship, surveyed the country, and took sketches of the most
remarkable points of view. The temperature rose by degrees, and the
heaped-up snow began to melt. The doctor made an almost complete
collection of northern birds, such as gulls, divers, eider-down ducks,
which are very much like common ducks, with white breasts and backs,
blue bellies, the top of the head blue, an