Hardly a particle of snow remains upon the harbor-ice, the recent gales having swept it away; and the porch of my snow-hut has been fretted away to a mere cobweb by the attrition of the snow-drift: the doctor and I rebuilt it to-day. Three reindeer and a wolf have been seen.
FOOTNOTES:
[17] Subsequently named after my excellent friend A. Arcedeckne, Esq., Commodore of the Royal London Yacht Club.
[18] Named after Lord Wrottesley, in remembrance of the support given by him to the expedition, his advocacy of it in the House of Lords, and of the facilities granted me by the Royal Society—of which he was President—for the pursuit of scientific observations.
CHAPTER XII.
Death of our engineer—Scarcity of game—The cold unusually trying—Jolly, under adverse circumstances—Petersen's information—Return of the sun of 1859—Early spring sledge-parties—Unusual severity of the winter—Severe hardships of early sledging—The western shores of Boothia—Meet the Esquimaux—Intelligence of Franklin's ships—Return to the 'Fox'—Allen Young returns.
DEATH OF OUR ENGINEER.
Nov. 7th.—Sunday evening.—Brief as is the interval since my last entry, yet how awful, and, to one of our small company, how fatal it has been! Yesterday Mr. Brand was out shooting as usual, and in robust health; in the evening Hobson sat with him for a little time. Mr. Brand turned the conversation upon our position and employments last year; he called to remembrance poor Robert Scott, then in sound health, and the fact of his having carried our "Guy Fawkes" round the ship on the preceding day twelvemonth, and added mournfully, "Poor fellow! no one knows whose turn it may be to go next." He finished his evening pipe, and shut his cabin door shortly after nine o'clock. This morning, at seven o'clock, his servant found him lying upon the deck, a corpse, having been several hours dead. Apoplexy appears to have been the cause. He was a steady, serious man, under forty years of age, and leaves a widow and three or four children; what their circumstances are I am not aware.