reams,--they seemed as if an angel had sent
them to reward us for the hard realities of the day: we revelled in a
sweet elysium; home was around us,--friends, kind, good friends, plenty
smiled on every side; we eat, drank, and were merry; we visited old
scenes with by-gone shipmates; even those who had long gone to that
bourne whence traveller returneth not, came back to cheer our sleeping
hours; and many a one, nigh forgot amongst the up-hill struggles of
life, returned to gladden us with their smiles: and as we awoke to the
morning meal, many a regret would be heard that so pleasant a delusion
as the night had been spent in should be dispelled: each succeeding
night, however, brought again "the cherub that watcheth over poor
Jack," to throw sunny thoughts around the mind, and thus relieve our
wayworn bodies.

On the 14th of May, the "Reliance" and "True Blue" sledges reached a
wide break in the continuation of the land, looking like a channel, and
some heights to the S.W. appeared to mark the opposite shore of a
channel full twenty-five miles wide. Captain Ommanney and myself
ascended an elevated mass of table-land, and looked upon the
wide-spread wintry scene. Landward, to the south, and far over the
rugged and frozen sea, all was death-like and silent as the grave: we
felt we might have been the first since "creation's morn" to have
looked upon it; the very hills were still clothed in their winter's
livery, and the eye could not detect the line of demarkation between
land and sea. The frozen foot-prints of a musk-ox excited our
curiosity, as being the first and only ones we had seen, and, together
with like traces of reindeer, a short distance from Cape Walker, was
the sum total of the realization of all our once rosy anticipations of
beef and venison to be found during the southern journey.

Ptarmigan, in small numbers, were occasionally seen, and about four
brace shot; and now and then a stray fox was espied, watching us,
although their numerous tracks showed them to be pretty plentiful:
traces of hares were very numerous, but none were fallen in with by our
sportsmen, except at Cape Walker, where many were seen by later
visitors, and several shot; indeed, it appeared as if it was the limit,
in this direction, of animal life: the Polar bears, and _ergo_ the
seals, not showing themselves west of the same headland in our route.

On the 17th May the "Reliance" and "True Blue" parted company, each
having provisions