"My foot on the ice-berg has lighted,
When hoarse the wild winds veer about;
My eye when the bark is benighted,
Sees the lamp of the light-house go out.
I'm the sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird,
Lone looker on despair;
The sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird,
The only witness there."
Brainard.
Two months passed rapidly away in the excitement and novelty of the
situation and pursuits of the men. In that time, all was done that the
season would allow; the house being considered as complete, and far from
uncomfortable. The days had rapidly lessened in length, and the nights
increased proportionably, until the sun was visible only for a few hours
at a time, and then merely passing low along the northern horizon. The
cold increased in proportion, though the weather varied almost as much in
that high latitude as it does in our own. It had ceased to thaw much,
however; and the mean of the thermometer was not many degrees above zero.
Notwithstanding this low range of the mercury, the men found that they
were fast getting acclimated, and that they could endure a much greater
intensity of cold than they had previously supposed possible. As yet,
there had been nothing to surprise natives of New York and New England,
there rarely occurring a winter in which weather quite as cold as any they
had yet experienced in the antarctic sea, does not set in, and last for
some little time. Even while writing this very chapter of our legend, here
in the mountains of Otsego, one of these Siberian visits has been paid to
our valley. For the last three days the thermometer has ranged, at
sunrise, between 17° and 22° below zero; though there is every appearance
of a thaw, and we may have the mercury up to 40° above, in the course of
the next twenty-four hours. Men accustomed to such transitions, and such
extreme cold, are not easily laid up or intimidated.
A great deal of snow fell about this particular portion of the year; more,
indeed, than at a later period. This snow produced the greatest
inconvenience; for it soon became so deep as to form high banks around the
house, and to fill all the customary haunts of the men. Still, there were
places that were in a great measure exempt from this white mantle. The
terrace immediately below the hut, which has so often been mentioned, was
one of these bare spots. It was so placed as to be swept by both the east
and the west winds, which generally cleared it of everything like snow, as
fast as it fell; and this more effectually than could be done by a
thousand brooms. The level of rock usually travelled in going to or from
the wreck, was another of these clear places. It was a sort of shelf, too
narrow to admit of the snow's banking, and too much raked by the winds
that commonly accompanied snow, to suffer the last to lodge to any great
depth. Snow there was, with a hard crust, as has already been mentioned;
but it was not snow ten or fifteen feet deep, as occurred in many other
places. There were several points, however, where banks had formed, even
on this ledge, through which the men were compelled to cut their way by
the use of shovels: an occupation that gave them exercise, and contributed
to keep them in health, if it was of no other service. It was found that
the human frame could not endure one-half the toil, in that low state of
the mercury, that it could bear in one a few degrees higher.
Daggett had not, by any means, abandoned his craft, as much as he had
permitted her to be dismantled. Every day or two he had some new expedient
for getting the schooner off in the spring; though all who heard them were
perfectly convinced of their impracticableness. This feeling induced him
to cause his own men to keep open the communication; and scarce a day
passed in which he did not visit the poor unfortunate craft. Nor was the
place without an interest of a very peculiar sort. It has been said that
the fragments of ice, some of which were more than a hundred feet in
diameter, and all of which were eight or ten feet in thickness, had been
left on their edges, inclining in a way to form caverns that extended a
great distance. Now, it so happened, that just around the wreck the cakes
were so distributed as to intercept the first snows which filled the outer
passages, got to be hardened, and covered anew by fresh storms, thus
interposed an effectual barrier to the admission of any more of the frozen
element within the ice. The effect was to form a vast range of natural
galleries amid the cakes, that were quite clear of any snow but that which
had adhered to their surfaces, and which offered little or no impediment
to motion--nay, which rather aided it, by rendering the walking less
slippery. As the deck of the schooner had been cleared, leaving an easy
access to all its entrances, cabin, hold, and forecastle, this put the
Vineyard Lion under cover, while it admitted of all her accommodations
being used. A portion of her wood had been left in her, it will be
remembered, as well as her camboose. The last was got into the cabin, and
Daggett, attended by two or three of his hands, would pass a good deal of
his time there. One reason given for this distribution of the forces, was
the greater room it allowed those who remained at the hut for motion. The
deck of this vessel being quite clear, it offered a very favourable spot
for exercise; better, in fact, than the terrace beneath the hut, being
quite sheltered from the winds and much warmer than it had been
originally, or ever since the heavy fall of snows commenced. Daggett paced
his quarter-deck hour after hour, almost deluding himself with the
expectation of sailing for home as soon as the return of summer would
permit him to depart.
Around the hut the snow early made vast embankments. Every one accustomed
to the action of this particular condition of one of the great elements,
will understand that a bend in the rocks outward, or a curve inward, must
necessarily affect the manner in which these banks were formed. The wind
did not, by any means, blow from any one point of the compass; though the
south-western cliffs might be almost termed the weather-side of the
island, so much more frequently did the gales come from that quarter than
from any other. The cape where the cove lay, and where the house had been
set up, being at the north-eastern point, and much protected by the high
table-land in its rear, it occupied the warmest situation in the whole
region. The winds that swept most of the north shore, but which, owing to
a curvature in its formation, did not often blow home to the hut, even
when they whistled along the terrace only a hundred feet beneath and more
salient, were ordinarily from the south-west outside; though they got a
more westerly inclination by following the land under the cliffs.
A bank of snow may be either a cause of destruction or a source of
comfort. Of course, a certain degree of cold must exist wherever snow is
to be found; but, unless in absolute contact with the human body, it does
not usually affect the system beyond a certain point. On the other hand,
it often breaks the wind, and it has been known to form a covering to
flocks, houses, &c., that has contributed essentially to their warmth. We
incline to the opinion that if one slept in a cavern formed in the snow,
provided he could keep himself dry, and did not come in absolute contact
with the element, he would not find his quarters very uncomfortable, so
long as he had sufficient clothing to confine the animal warmth near his
person. Now, our sealers enjoyed some such advantage as this; though not
literally in the same degree. Their house was not covered with snow,
though a vast bank was already formed quite near it and a good deal had
begun to pile against the tent. Singular as it may seem, on the east end
of the building, and on the south front, which looked in towards the cliff
next the cove, there was scarcely any snow at all. This was in part owing
to the constant use of the shovel and broom, but more so to the currents
of air, which usually carried everything of so light a nature as a flake
to more quiet spots, before it was suffered to settle on the ground.
Roswell early found, what his experience as an American might have taught
him, that the _melting_ of the snow, in consequence of the warmth of the
fires, caused much more inconvenience than the snow itself. The latter,
when dry, was easily got along with; but, when melted in the day, and
converted into icicles at night, it became a most unpleasant and not
altogether a safe neighbour; inasmuch as there was really danger from the
sort of damp atmosphere it produced.
The greatest ground of Roswell Gardiner's apprehensions, however, was for
the supply of fuel. Much of that brought from home had been fairly used in
the camboose, and in the stove originally set up in the hut. Large as that
stock had been, a very sensible inroad had been made upon it; and,
according to a calculation he had made, the wood regularly laid in would
not hold out much more than half the time that it would be indispensable
to remain on the island. This was a grave circumstance, and one that
demanded very serious consideration. Without fuel it would be impossible
to survive; no hardening process being sufficient to fortify the human
frame to a degree that would resist the influence of an antarctic winter.
From the moment it was probable the party would be obliged to pass the
winter at Sealer's Land, therefore, Roswell had kept a vigilant eye on the
wood. Stimson had more than once, spoken to him on the subject, and with
great prudence.
"Warmth must be kept among us," said the old boat-steerer, "or there will
be no hope for the stoutest man in either crew. We've a pretty good stock
of coffee, and that is better, any day, than all the rum and whiskey that
was ever distilled. Good hot coffee of a morning will put life into us
the coldest day that ever come out of either pole; and they do say the
south is colder than the north, though I never could understand why it
should be so."
"You surely understand the reason why it grows warmer as we approach the
equator, and colder as we go from it, whether we go north or south?"
Stimson assented; though had the truth been said, he would have been
obliged to confess that he knew no more than the facts.
"All sailors know sich things, Captain Gar'ner; though they know it with
very different degrees of exper'ence. But few get as far south as I have
been, to pass a winter. A good pot of hot coffee of a morning will go as
far as a second pee-jacket, if a man has to go out into the open air when
the weather is at the hardest."
"Luckily, our small stores are quite abundant, and we are better off for
coffee and sugar than for anything else. I laid in of both liberally when
we were at Rio."
"Yes, Rio is a good place for the articles. But coffee must be _hot_ to do
a fellow much good in one of these high-latitude winters; and to be hot
there must be fuel to heat it."
"I am afraid the wood will not hold out much more than half the time we
shall be here. Fortunately, we had a large supply; but the other schooner
was by no means as well furnished with fuel as she ought to have been for
such a voyage."
"Well, sir, I suppose you know what must be done next in such a case.
Without _warm_ food, men can no more live through one of these winters,
than they can live without food at all. If the Vineyard craft has no
proper fuel aboard her, we must make fuel of her."
Roswell regarded Stephen with fixed attention for some time. The idea was
presented to his mind for the second time, and he greatly liked it.
"That might do," he said; "though it will not be an easy matter to make
Captain Daggett consent to such a thing."
"Let him go two or three mornings without his warm meal and hot coffee,"
answered Stimson, shaking his head, "and he will be glad enough to come
into the scheme. A man soon gets willing to set fire to anything that
will burn in such a climate. A notion has been floating about in my mind,
Captain Gar'ner, that I've several times thought I would mention to you.
D'ye think, sir, any benefit could be made of that volcano over the bay,
should the worst get to the worst with us?"
"I have thought of the same thing, Stephen; though I fear in vain, I
suppose no useful heat can be given out there, until one gets too near the
bad air to breathe it. What you say about breaking up the other schooner,
however, is worthy of consideration; and I will speak to Captain Daggett
about it."
Roswell was as good as his word; and the Vineyard mariner met the proposal
as one repels an injury. Never were our two masters so near a serious
misunderstanding, as when Roswell suggested to Daggett the expediency of
breaking up the wreck, now that the weather was endurable, and the men
could work with reasonable comfort and tolerable advantage.
"The man who puts an axe or a saw into that unfortunate craft," said
Daggett, firmly, "I shall regard as an enemy. It is a hard enough bed that
she lies on, without having her ribs and sides torn to pieces by hands."
This was the strange spirit in which Daggett, continued to look at the
condition of the wreck! It was true that the ice prevented his actually
seeing the impossibility of his ever getting his schooner into the water
again; but no man at all acquainted with mechanics, and who knew the
paucity of means that existed on the island, could for a moment entertain
the idle expectation that seemed to have got into the Vineyard-master's
mind, unless subject to a species of one-idea infatuation. This
infatuation, however, existed not only in Daggett's mind, but in some
degree in those of his men. It is said that "in a multitude of counsellors
there is wisdom;" and the axiom comes from an authority too venerable to
be disputed. But it might, almost with equal justice, be said, that "in-a
multitude of counsellors there is folly;" for men are quite as apt to
sustain each other in the wrong as in the right. The individual who would
hesitate about advancing his fallacies and mistakes with a single voice,
does not scruple to proclaim them on the hill-tops, when he finds other
tongues to repeat his errors. Divine wisdom, foreseeing this consequence
of human weakness, has provided a church-catholic, and proceeding directly
from its Great Head on earth, as the repository of those principles,
facts, and laws, that it has deemed essential to the furtherance of its
own scheme of moral government on earth; and yet we see audacious
imitators starting up on every side, presuming in their ignorance, longing
in their ambition, and envious in these longings, who do not scruple to
shout out upon the house-tops crudities over which knowledge wonders as it
smiles, and humility weeps as it wonders. Such is man, when sustained by
his fellows, in every interest of life; from religion, the highest of all,
down to the most insignificant of his temporal concerns.
In this spirit did Daggett and his crew now feel and act. Roswell had
early seen, with regret, that something like a feeling of party was
getting up among the Vineyarders, who had all along regarded the better
fortune of their neighbours with an ill-concealed jealousy. Ever since the
shipwreck, however, this rivalry had taken a new and even less pleasant
aspect. It was slightly hostile, and remarks had been occasionally made
that sounded equivocally; as if the Vineyarders had an intention of
separating from the other crew, and of living by themselves. It is
probable, however, that all this was the fruit of disappointment; and
that, at the bottom, nothing very serious was in contemplation. Daggett
had permitted his people to aid in transporting most of the stores to the
house; though a considerable supply had been left in the wreck. This last
arrangement was made seemingly without any hostile design, but rather in
furtherance of a plan to pass as much time as circumstances would allow,
on board the stranded vessel. There was, in truth, a certain convenience
in this scheme, that commended it to the good sense of all. So long as any
portion of the Vineyarders could be made comfortable in the wreck, it was
best they should remain there; for it saved the labour of transporting all
the provisions, and made more room to circulate in and about the house.
The necessity of putting so many casks, barrels and boxes within doors,
had materially circumscribed the limits; and space was a great
desideratum for several reasons, health in particular.
Roswell was glad, therefore, when any of the Vineyarders expressed a wish
to go to the wreck, and to pass a few days there. With a view to encourage
this disposition, as well as to ascertain how those fared who chose that
abode, he paid Daggett a visit, and passed a night or two himself in the
cabin of the craft. This experiment told him that it was very possible to
exist there when the thermometer stood at zero; but, how it would do when
ranging a great deal lower, he had his doubts. The cabin was small, and a
very moderate fire in the camboose served to keep it reasonably warm;
though Daggett, at all times a reasonable and reasoning man, when the
"root of all evil" did not sorely beset him, came fully into his own views
as to the necessity of husbanding the fuel, and of hardening the men. None
of that close stewing over stoves, which is so common in America, and
which causes one-half of the winter diseases of the climate, was tolerated
in either gang. Daggett saw the prudence of Roswell's, or rather of
Stimson's system, and fell into it freely, and with hearty good-will. It
was during Gardiner's visit to the wreck that our two masters talked over
their plans for the winter, while taking their exercise on the schooner's
deck, each well muffled up, to prevent the frost from taking hold of the
more exposed parts. Every one had a seal-skin cap, made in a way to
protect the ears and most of the face; and our two masters were thus
provided, in common with their men.
"I suppose that we are to consider this as pleasant winter weather,"
Roswell remarked, "the thermometer being down only at zero. Stimson tells
me that even at Orange Harbour, the season he was there, they paid out
mercury until it all got into the ball. A month or two hence, we may look
out for the season of frosts, as the Injins call it. You will hardly think
of staying out here, when the really hard weather sets in."
"I do not believe we shall feel the cold much more than we do now. This
daily washing is a capital stove; for I find all hands say that, when it
is once over, they feel like new men. As for me, I shall stick by my craft
while there is a timber left in her to float!"
Roswell thought how absurd it was to cling thus to a useless mass of
wood, and iron, and copper; but he said nothing on that subject.
"I am now sorry that we took over to the house so many of our supplies,"
Daggett continued, after a short pause. "I am afraid that many of them
will have to be brought back again."
"That would hardly quit cost, Daggett; it would be better to come over and
pass the heel of the winter with us, when the supplies get to be short
here. As we eat, we make room in the hut, you know; and you will be so
much the more comfortable. An empty pork-barrel was broken up for the
camboose yesterday morning."
"We shall see--we shall see, Gardner. My men have got a notion that your
people intend to break up this schooner for fuel, should they not keep an
anchor-watch aboard her."
"Anchor-watch!" repeated Roswell, smiling. "It is well named--if there
ever was an anchor-watch, you keep it here: for no ground-tackle will ever
hold like this."
"We still think the schooner may be got off," Daggett said, regarding his
companion inquiringly.
While the Vineyard-man had a certain distrust of his brother-master, he
had also a high respect for his fair-dealing propensities, and a strong
disposition to put confidence in his good faith. The look that he now gave
was, if possible, to read the real opinion of the other, in a countenance
that seldom deceived.
"I shall be grateful to God, Captain Daggett," returned Roswell, after a
short pause, "if we get through the long winter of this latitude, without
burning too much of _both_ craft, than will be for our good. Surely it
were better to begin on that which is in the least serviceable condition?"
"I have thought this matter over, Gar'ner, with all my mind--have dreamt
of it--slept on it--had it before me at all hours, and in all weathers;
and, look at it as I will, it is full of difficulties. Will you agree to
take in a half-cargo of my skins and iles next season, and make in all
respect? a joint v'y'ge of it; from home, home ag'in, if we'll consent to
let this craft be burned?"
"It exceeds my power to make any such bargain. I have an owner who looks
sharply after his property, and my crew are upon lays, like the people of
all sealers. You ask too much; and you forget that, should I assume the
same power over my own craft, as you still claim in this wreck, you might
never find the means of getting away from the group at all. We are not
obliged to receive you on board our schooner."
"I know you think, Gar'ner, that it will be impossible for us ever to get
our craft off; but you overlook one thing that we may do--what is there to
prevent our breaking her up, and of using the materials to make a smaller
vessel; one of sixty tons say--in which we might get home, besides taking
most of our skins?"
"I will not say _that_ will be impossible; but I do say it will be very
difficult. It would be wiser for you, in my judgment, to leave your cargo
in the house, under the keeping of a few hands if you see fit, and go off
with me. I will land you at Rio, where you can almost always find some
small American craft to come south in, and pick up your leavings. If you
choose that the men left behind should amuse themselves in your absence,
by building a small craft, I am certain they will meet with no opposition
from me. There is but one place where a vessel can be launched, and that
is the spot in the cove where we beached your schooner. There it might
possibly be done, though I think not without a great deal of trouble, and
possibly not without more means than are to be picked up along shore in
this group. But there is a very important fact that you overlook, Daggett,
which it may be as well to mention here, as to delay it. _Your_ craft, or
_mine_, must be used as fuel this winter, or we shall freeze to death to a
man. I have made the calculations closely; and, certain as our existence,
there is no alternative between such a death and the use of the fuel I
have mentioned."
"Not a timber of mine shall be touched. I do not believe one-half of these
stories about the antarctic winter, which cannot be much worse than what a
body meets with up in the Bay of Fundy."
"A winter in the Bay of Fundy, without fuel, must be bad enough; but it is
a mere circumstance to one here. I should think that a man who has tasted
an antarctic _summer_ and _autumn_, must get a pretty lively notion of
what is to come after them."
"The men can keep in their berths much of the time, and save wood. There
are many other ways of getting through a winter than burning a vessel. I
shall never consent to a stick of this good craft's going into the
galley-fire as long as I can see my way clear to prevent it. I would burn
_cargo_ before I would burn my _craft_."
Roswell wondered at this pertinacity; but he trusted to the pressure of
the coming season, and changed the subject. Certainly the thought of
breaking up his own craft did not cross his mind: though he could see no
sufficient objection to the other side of the proposition. As discussion
was useless, however, he continued to converse with Daggett on various
practical subjects, on which his companion was rational and disposed to
learn.
It had been ascertained by experiment that the water, at a considerable
depth, was essentially warmer beneath the ice, than at its surface. A plan
had been devised by which the lower currents of the water could be pumped
up for the purposes of the bath; thus rendering the process far more
tolerable than it had previously been. Bathing in extremely cold weather,
however, is not as formidable a thing as is generally supposed, the air
being at a lower temperature than the water. As the greatest importance
was attached to these daily ablutions, the subject was gone over between
the two masters in all its bearings. There were no conveniences for the
operation at the wreck; and this was one reason why Roswell suggested that
a residence there ought to be abandoned. Daggett dissented, and invited
his companion to take a walk in his caverns.
A promenade in a succession of caves formed of ice, with the thermometer
at zero, would naturally strike one as a somewhat chilling amusement.
Gardiner did not find it so. He was quite protected from the wind, which
gives so much pungency to bitter cold, rendering it insupportable.
Completely protected from this, and warmed by the exertion of clambering
among the cakes. Roswell's blood was soon in a healthful glow; and, to own
the truth, when he left the wreck, it was with a much better opinion of it
as a place of residence, than when he had arrived to pay his visit.
As there was now nothing for the men to do in the way of preparation,
modes of amusement were devised that might unite activity of body with
that of the mind. The snows ceased to fall as the season advanced; and
there were but few places on which heavy burthens might not have been
transported over their crusts. It was, indeed, easier moving about on the
surface of the frozen snow, than it had been on the naked rocks: the
latter offering obstacles that no longer showed themselves. Sliding down
the declivities, and even skating, were practised; few northern Americans
being ignorant of the latter art. Various other sources of amusement were
resorted to; but it was found, generally, that very little exercise in the
open air exhausted the frame, and that a great difficulty of breathing
occurred. Still, it was thought necessary to health that the men should
remain as much as possible out of the crowded house; and various projects
were adopted to keep up the vital warmth while exposed. Ere the month of
July had passed, which corresponds to our January, it had been found
expedient to make dresses of skins; for which fortunately the materials
abounded.
As the season advanced, the idea of preserving more than the lives of his
men was gradually abandoned by Gardiner; though Daggett still clung to his
wreck, and actually had wood transported back to it, that he might stay as
much as possible near his property. There was no longer any thawing,
though there were very material gradations in the intensity of the frosts.
Occasionally, it was quite possible to remain in the open air an hour or
two at a time; then, again, there were days in which it exceeded the
powers of human endurance to remain more than a few minutes removed to any
distance from heat artificially procured. On the whole, however, it was
found that the comparatively moderate weather predominated; and it was
rare indeed that all the people did not pursue their avocations and
amusements outside, at what was called the middle of the day.
And what a meridian it was! The shortest day had passed some time, when
Roswell and Stimson were walking together on the terrace, then, as usual,
as clear from snow as if swept by a broom; but otherwise wearing the
aspect of interminable winter, in common with all around it. They were
conversing, as had been much their wont of late, and were watching the
passage of the sun as he stole along the northern horizon; even at high
noon rising but a very few degrees above it!
"It has a cold look, sir, but it does give out some heat," said Stephen,
as he faced the luminary, in one of his turns. "I can feel a little warmth
from it just now, sheltered us we are here under the cliffs, and with a
back-ground of naked rock to throw back what reaches us. To me, all these
changes in the movements of the sun seem very strange, Captain Gar'ner;
but I know I'm ignorant, and that others may well know all about what I do
not understand."
Here Gardiner undertook to explain the phenomena that have been slightly
treated on in our own pages. There are few Americans so ignorant as not to
be fully aware that the sun has no sensible motion, or any motion that has
an apparent influence on our own planet; but fewer still clearly
comprehend the reasons of those very changes that are occurring constantly
before their eyes. We cannot say that Captain Gardiner succeeded very well
in his undertaking, though he imprinted on the old boat-steerer's mind the
fact that the sun would not be seen at all were they only a few degrees
farther south than they actually were.
"And now, sir, I suppose he'll get higher and higher every day," put in
Stephen, "until he comes quite up above our heads?"
"Not exactly that at noon; though abeam, as it might be, mornings and
evenings."
"Still, the coldest of our weather is yet to come, or I have no exper'ence
in such things. Why does not the heat come back with the sun--or what
seems to be the sun coming back? though, as you tell me, Captain Gar'ner,
it's only the 'arth sheering this-a-way and that-a-way in her course."
"One may well ask such a question--but cold produces cold, and it takes
time to wear it out. February is commonly the coldest month in the year,
even in America; though days any one in February. March, and even April,
are months I dread here; and that so much the more, Stephen, because our
fuel goes a good deal faster than I could wish."
"What you say is very true, sir. Still, the people must have fire. I
turned out this morning, while all hands were still in their berths, and
looked to the stove, and it was as much as human natur' could bear to be
about without my cap and skin-covering; though in-doors the whole time. If
the weather goes on as it has begun, we shall have to keep a watch at the
stove; nor do I think one stove will answer us much longer. We shall want
another in the sleeping-room."
"Heaven knows where the wood is to come from! Unless Captain Daggett gives
up the wreck, we shall certainly be out long before the mild season
returns."
"We must keep ourselves warm, sir, by reading the bible," answered
Stimson, smiling; though the glance he cast at his officer was earnest and
anxious. "You must not forget, Captain Gar'ner, that you've promised one
who is praying for you daily, to go through the chapters she has marked,
and give the matter a patient and attentive thought. No sealin', sir, can
be half as important as this reading of the good book in the right
spirit."
"So you believe that Jesus was the Son of God!" exclaimed Roswell, half
inquiringly, and half in a modified sort of levity.
"As much as I believe that we are here, sir. I wish I was half as certain
of our ever getting away."
"What has caused you to believe this, Stimson?--reason, or the talk of
your mother and of the parson?"
"My mother died afore I could listen to her talk, sir: and very little
have I had to do with parsons, for the want of being where they are to be
found. _Faith_ tells me to believe this; and Faith comes from God."
"And I could believe it, too, were Faith imparted to me from the same
source. As it 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.