ors. Strong, in order to change the food a little, had
procured several dozens of eider-duck eggs, twice as big as hens'
eggs, and of greenish colour. It was not much, but the change was
refreshing to a crew fed on salted meat. The wind became favourable
the next day, but, however, Shandon did not command them to get under
sail; he still wished to stay another day, and for conscience' sake
to give any human being time to join the _Forward_. He even caused
the 16-pounder to be fired from hour to hour; it thundered out with
a great crash amidst the icebergs, but the noise only frightened the
swarms of molly-mokes and rotches. During the night several rockets
were sent up, but in vain. And thus they were obliged to set sail.

On the 8th of May, at six o'clock in the morning, the _Forward_ under
her topsails, foresails, and topgallant, lost sight of the Uppernawik
settlement, and the hideous stakes to which were hung seal-guts and
deer-paunches. The wind was blowing from the south-east, and the
temperature went up to thirty-two degrees. The sun pierced through
the fog, and the ice was getting a little loosened under its dissolving
action. But the reflection of the white rays produced a sad effect
on the eyesight of several of the crew. Wolsten, the gunsmith, Gripper,
Clifton, and Bell were struck with snow blindness, a kind of weakness
in the eyes very frequent in spring, and which determines, amongst
the Esquimaux, numerous cases of blindness. The doctor advised those
who were so afflicted and their companions in general to cover their
faces with green gauze, and he was the first to put his own
prescription into execution.

The dogs bought by Shandon at Uppernawik were of a rather savage nature,
but in the end they became accustomed to the ship; the captain did
not take the arrival of these new comrades too much to heart, and
he seemed to know their habits. Clifton was not the last to remark
the fact that the captain must already have been in communication
with his Greenland brethren, as on land they were always famished
and reduced by incomplete nourishment; they only thought of
recruiting themselves by the diet on board.

On the 9th of May the _Forward_ touched within a few cables' length
the most westerly of the Baffin Isles. The doctor noticed several
rocks in the bay between the islands and the continent, those called
Crimson Cliffs; they were covered over with snow as red as carmine,
to which Dr. Kane gives a pure