is, I fear I shall never believe in what appears to me to be
an impossibility."

Then followed a long discussion, in which ingenuity, considerable command
of language, human pride and worldly sentiments, contended with that
clear, intuitive, deep conviction, which it is the pleasure of the Deity
often to bestow on those who would otherwise seem to be unfitted to become
the repositories of so great a gift. As we shall have to deal with this
part of our subject more particularly hereafter, we shall not enlarge on
it here; but pursue the narrative as it is connected with the advance of
the season, and the influence the latter exerted over the whole party of
the lost sealers.

Chapter XXV.

"Beyond the Jewish ruler, banded close,
A company full glorious, I saw
The twelve apostles stand. O, with what looks
Of ravishment and joy, what rapturous tears;
What hearts of ecstacy, they gazed again
On their beloved Master"----

_Hillhouse's Judgment._

It has become necessary to advance the season to the beginning of the
month of October, which corresponds to our own April. In a temperate
climate, this would mark the opening of spring; and the reviving hopes of
a new and genial season would find a place in every bosom. Not so at
Sealer's Land. So long as the winter was at its height, and the clear,
steady cold continued, by falling into a system so prepared as to meet the
wants of such a region, matters had gone on regularly, if not with
comfort; and, as yet, the personal disasters were confined to a few frozen
cheeks and noses, the results of carelessness and wanton exposure, rather
than of absolute necessity. But one who had seen the place in July, and
who examined it now, would find many marks of change, not to say of
deterioration.

In the first place, a vast deal of snow had fallen; fallen, indeed, to
such a degree, as even to cover the terrace, block up the path that
communicated with the wreck, and nearly to smother the house and all
around it. The winds were high and piercing, rendering the cold doubly
penetrating. The thermometer now varied essentially, sometimes rising
considerably above zero, though oftener falling far below it. There had
been many storms in September, and October was opening with a most
blustering and wintry aspect. In one sense, however, the character of the
season had changed; the dry, equal cold, that was generally supportable,
having been succeeded by tempests that