with my knife, as it was frozen as
hard as a rock. I was therefore obliged to chop it into mouthfuls with
my hatchet, and even when between my teeth it was some time before it
would thaw, but then you see, as I had nobody to talk to, I had plenty
of time for mastication, and it was undoubtedly partly to this
circumstance that I kept my health all the time. There is nothing so
bad as bolting one's food, except going without it. By the way, I have
had to do that more than once for several weeks together. Once for a
whole month I had nothing to eat but some round-shot and bullet moulds,
and an old jackass, which was washed up on the beach, after being well
pickled by the salt water, but that has nothing to do with my present
story. I wish that I had kept a diary of my proceedings during my
northern ramble. It would have proved highly interesting to Sir Joseph
Banks, and other scientific people, but, as it happens, I have my memory
alone to which I can trust, though that, however, never deceives me.
Well, after leaving my flagstaff I travelled on, neither turning to the
right hand nor to the left, and it is wonderful what a straight course I
kept, considering the difficulty there is in finding one's way over a
trackless plain without a compass. If I had had too much grog aboard, I
could not have done it, and it's a strong argument in favour of keeping
sober on all occasions, but more especially when any work is to be done.
I slept at night, as before, in a hole in the snow, but never suffered
from cold; this was partly on account of the quantity of bear's grease I
swallowed, which served to keep the lamp of life alive, and also because
every mile I advanced I found the atmosphere growing warmer, and the
Northern Lights brighter and brighter. There could be no doubt about
it; those lights were the cause of the unexpected warmth I encountered;
so warm, indeed, did the air become, that I am certain many a man would
have turned back for fear of being roasted alive, but I was not to be
daunted. Onward I went till I got within less than a mile of one of the
biggest fires I ever saw. The effect was grand and beautiful in the
extreme. You might suppose yourself looking at a city fifty times as
large as London, and every house in it as big as Saint Paul's, and every
part of it blazing away at the same time, and even then you would have
no conception of the magnificence of the scene which met my view, as I
beheld the source