circumstances, the L20,000
reward the British Government had offered for Franklin's rescue; we, I
am sorry to say, had acted differently. America had plucked a rose from
our brows; but in such generous enterprise, we for the most part felt
that no narrow-minded national prejudices could enter, and I gloried in
the thought that the men who had so nobly borne themselves, as well as
he, the princely merchant who had done his best to assist the widow and
orphan to recover those for whom they had so long hoped and wept, were
men who spoke our language, and came from one parent-stock--a race
whose home is on the great waters.

Looking at my rough notes for the following week, I am now puzzled to
know what we were hoping for; it must have been a second open season in
1850,--a sanguine disposition, no doubt brought about by a break in the
weather, not unlike the Indian summer described by American writers.

[Headnote: _GO INTO WINTER QUARTERS._]

_September 14th._--I went in the "Pioneer," with some others, to see if
the floe had opened a road to the south of Griffith's Island; it had
not, nor did it appear likely to do so this season, though there was
water seen some fifteen miles or so to the westward.

One day the "Assistance" and "Intrepid" started for Assistance Harbour,
to winter there, but came back again, for winter had barred the route
to the eastward as well as westward. One day after this, or rather,
many days, we amused ourselves, with powder, blowing open a canal
astern of the "Resolute," which froze over as quickly as we did it. At
other times, some people would go on the top of the island, and see
oceans of water, where no ship could possibly get to it, and then
others would visit the same spot after a night or two of frost, and,
seeing ice where the others had seen water, asserted most confidently
that the first were exaggerators!

At any rate, September passed; winter and frost had undoubted dominion
over earth and sea; already the slopes of Griffith's Island, and the
land north of us, were covered with snow; the water in sight was like a
thread, and occasionally disappeared altogether. Fires all day, and
candles for long nights, were in general requisition. Some cross-fire
in the different messes was taking place as the individuals suffered
more or less from the cold. Plethoric ones, who became red-hot with a
run up the ladder, exclaimed against fires, and called zero charming
weather; the long and leth