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Las cartes, planchas. tableaux, ate. peuvant Atre filmAs A das taux da reduction diffArants. Lorsque la document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clich*. il est film* * partir da I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche * droUe, et de haut an bas. en prenant la nombre d'images nAcessaira. Las diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 >.»^sJ»S|fjB*4 THE STOEY OF DR. SCORESBY. '"<""••■""'"■ '■"' > ■■■'■■''^^"^■^"^"■""■■■wnipvpnmMiPilPPPiPllMll >- < < i ■: ■( THE STOEY OF DR. SCOPvESBY r/fi: ARCTIC NAVIGATOR. " Here let the billows stiffen, and have rest," Coleridge. T. NELSON AND SOx\S, PATERNOSTER ROW. EDINBURGH; AND NEW YORK. 1890 gD<^ » 2^ ©TontettU I. The AnoTio Regions, II. ScoKESBY's Early Year*, III. Scoresbt the Navigator. IV. ScoRESBY Enters the CnuRcn, V. Last Years of a Uskfdl Life. . 7 .. id .. 44 . 89 . 99 PROvn j^' ^ i V'S412 VICTOrtIA, U. G. ::a.^y [The compiler of the following narrative desires to acknowledge his obligations to the late Dr. Scoresby- Jackson's " Lite of Dr. Scoreaby," as well as to Dr. Scoresby's own works.] THE STORY OF DR. SOORESBY. -M- CHAPTER I. • THE ARCTIC REGIONS. AS the reader evir attempted to picture to himself the wilderness of ice and snow, of barren wa.^e and frozen sea, which surrounds the North Pole ? That wilderness of ice and snow, those barren wastes, those melancholy seas, which are compre- hended under the title of the Arctic or Polar Regions ? There, both landscape and seascape assume a gloomy and dreary aspect, except during the brief reign of Summer, so that one might almost be tempted to think a terrible doom had been laid upon the scene. 8 THE ARCTIC REGIONS. Immense steppes, or level plains, interaected by morasses, and scantily relieved with woods of fir and birch, stretch for leagues and leagues far away into the dull obscurity of the winter haae, until they merge into rent and rocky deserts, bare of all vegetation except a few mosses and lichens, which are nearly always crusted with glittering snow and ice, and descend to the frost- bound waters of the Arctic Ocean. We find these dreary regions in their greatest extent in North America ; not simply because that continent approaches much nearer to the pole than does the Old World, but because, owing to its geological conditions and geographical posi- tion, it lies especially open, even towards the south, to the baleful influence of the Arctic cli- mate. This* climate, with its bitter cold and consider- able humidity, prevails over nearly the whole of Danish America, Alaska, Hudson's Land, and Labrador, down even to the unimportant ridge or watershed which separates the tributary streams of Hudson's Bay from the great basins of the St. Lawrence, the five celebrated lakes or inland seas, and the mighty flooa of the Mississipj)i. The ridge or watershed to which we refer winds be- il POLAR AMERICA. 9 tween the 52nd and 49th parallels of latitude, from Belle-Isle Strait to the sources of the Sas- katchewan, in the Rocky Mountains, where it bends towards the Pacific Ocean, and forms the northern boundary of the basin of the Columbia. It has been estimated that the Ai'ctic lands of America, including the numerous island-clusters which lie to the north and north-east, do not occupy less than 560,000 square leagues. There- fore they greatly exceed in extent the lands of the European continent, which are calculated to cover 490,000 square leagues. Polar America, as it may conveniently be called, divides itself into three distinct zones or sections : the Province of the North- West, where Nature sometimes condescends to smile, and human labour succeeds in making the earth productive ; the Middle or Wooded Zone; and the Barren Landes. The Wooded Zone includes the basins of the Upper Mackenzie River, the Churchill, the Nelson, and the Severa Hudson's Bay pene- trates it on the east, and indents it with many a formidable creek. The navigation in this great northern Mediterranean, which lies all open to the Polar currents and the icebergs of the Pole, begins only in the month of June, and closes in 10 THE REION OP WINTER. the month of September : for the rest of the year its waters are bound in chains of solid ice, im- penetrable to the most adventurous seaman. Along its shore the soil never thaws below the surface, and even the surface not infrequently freezes in the very heat of summer ! Not a tree, not a shrub, not an herb diversifies the monotony of the dead and blighted landscape. Like a despotic and invincible tyrant, Wintei reigns here for nearly ten months out of twelve. From the end of September the barren soil, the rivers which flow into the bay, the tributaries which swell these rivers, the chaplet of lakes which connect them with each other, all disappear under a shroud or pall of hoar-frost. Who shall paint the dreariness, the gloom, nay, the lurid ghastliness, of this scenery, as it lies at times in the cold light of an unclouded moon, and a deep blue, but chill and cheerless sky ? It is not until May comes round that the ther- mometer rises ever so little above 32** (or freez- ing-point) in the wooded zone, or that a breath ot life inspires its vegetation. Then, indeed, if you strike inland, you will see the reddish sprays of the willow, and the boughs of the poplar and the birch hang out their cottony tassels ; a gleam of THE BARREN L ANDES. 11 greenness rises above the snow ; saxifrage, and dandelion, and burdock creep about the rocks ; the sweet-brier throws out its pleasant perfume ; the strawberry and the goosebeny put forth a promise of fruit; and high above these lowly shrubs rise the noble thuya, the larch, and the glorious pine. But, at the same time, the rapid melting of the snow has converted the soil, re- cently as hard and polished as marble, into a wide surface of swamp and marsh, tenanted by innumerable swarms of mosquitoes. We proceed northward to the zone of the Barren Landes. Its southern boundary may be defined by a line drawn from the mouth of the river ChurchiU in Hudson's Bay to Mount St. Elias on the coast of the Pacific, and passing along, the southern shores of the Bear and the Slave Lakes. In the north, this zone is lost, as it were, in the eternal ice which fetters the coast of the Parry Archipelago ; in the east and north- east, similar conditions of soil and climate bring within it the greatest part of Labrador and all Greenland ; from which, indeed, it is separated only accidentally by the breaking up of the mass of ice which bridges over the channel of Baffin's Bay. 12 POLAR EUROPE. In Asia, the Polar Regions comprehend the whole of that desolate tract which is known as Siberia, and a considerable portion of the vast and gloomy steppes. However, the north-eastern extremity, the peninsula of Kamtschatka, exhi- bits a chain of volcanic mountains, many of whose craters are still in activity, and one of which, Klisutchevskoi, is remarkable for its grandeur and loftiness. In Europe the only Polar Lands, properly so called, are Russian Lapland and the sea-cleft coast of Northern Russia. To the north of the most advanced point of that coast, but separated from it by a narrow arm of the sea, lie the three islands forming Nova Zembla ; desert islands, inhabited by a few fisher- men, and containing no important types of animal or vegetable life. The western side of this group is traversed by a mountain range 2000 feet in height. Lastly, we must notice, almost in the centre of the Frozen Sea, and situated at nearly equal dis- tances from the Old and the New World, the sombre archipelago of Spitzbergen (that is, " the Peaked Mountains,") first visited by Barentz in " THE PEAKED MOUNTAINS." 13 1596. It lies between the parallels of IT and 81°, and the meridians of 10° and 24° east of Greenwich. The summits of these island moun- tains are crowned by perpetual ice and snow. Between them yawn deep narrow valleys or ravines, mostly occupied by those slow moving ice-rivers, called glaciers. The surrounding ocean swarms with fish, and the frozen shores are fre- quented by the walrus and the seal. Here the huge glaciers descend into the very waters, and ever and anon throw oiF vast masses, which float out to sea, drift hither and thither with the currents, and in the shape of icebergs threaten and dismay the mariner. Except during the too brief summer, the approach to Spitzbergen is rendered impos- sible by a formidable barrier of ice ; and the chan- nels between the different islands are so completely frozen over, that it was long doubted whether Spitzbergen was not one large island, deeply indented by gulf and creek, rather than an archi- pelago. It is uninhabited ; yet the voyager, Ian ! ii 20 RELICS ON THE SHORE. made good their descent as far as the summit of the secondary ridge. But instead of crawling along its saddle-back, as they had previously done, they preferred to slide down one of the steepest banks, whose inclination was little less than fifty degrees. Towards the foot of the hill an expanse of snow interrupted their line of descent. As it was loose and soft they entered upon it fearlessly, and their progress, at first, was not at all too rapid; but coming to a surface of solid ice, about a hun- dred yards in depth, they were launched across it with a velocity which discomfited though, happily, it did not injure them ! On the belt of land intervening between sea and mountain, they found the horns of reindeer, many skulls and other bones of sea-horses, whales, nar- whals, foxes, and seals, and some human skeletons laid in chest-like coffins, exposed naked on the strand. Two Kussian lodges, formed of logs of pine, with a third in ruins, were also discovered ; the former gave various signs of having been recently inhabited. One of them, though small, was not uncomfortable ; it smelt intolerably, however, of the smoke of wood and the fume of oil. Many domestic utensils were within and about it. A new hurdle lay by the door; and f A GLIMPSE OF BIRD-LIFE. 21 traps for foxes and birds were scattered along the beach. Among the shingle were numerous nests, con- taining the eggs of terns, ducks, and burgomasters, and in some of them young birds were cradled. They were all watched by the respective birds which owned them ; with loud screams and bold attacks, they defended their frail homes from the Arctic gulls and other predatory birds that hovered about the place. They ventured even to descend within a yard or two of some of the sailors who were so cruel as to take their eggs or young, and followed them for a considerable time, flapping their wings and screaming violently. The only insect seen by Scoresby was a small green fly, which infested the beach in swarms. The sea along the coast teemed with a species of helix, with the clio borealis, and with small shrimps. The birds seen were the pufl&n, tern, little auk, guillemot, black guillemot or tysto, kittowake, fulmar, burgomaster, Arctic gull, brent goose, eider-duck, crimson-headed sparrow, and sandpiper ; but no living quadruped was ob- served. Drift-wood was strewn about in some abun- dance ; but all of it seemed to have lain long on 5 I II 'I H M 22 THE POLAR SEA. the beach, being much battered and bleached, and some of it worm-eaten. We now take leave of Spitzbergea The Polar Sea, it has been justly remarked, exhibits to us the Arctic Desert in a form which is at once specially imposing, majestic, and ter- rible. On its surface float vast fields of ice, huge mountains of ice, steep banks of ice, far more for- midable to the navigator than the cvclones and typhoons which he encounters in the waters of the Torrid Zone. As we have explained, these floating ice-mountains are the offshoots of the great glaciers which glide down to the margin of the sea, and frequently project a considerable dis- tance beyond the coast, where, disrupted by their own weight, or by the continuous action of the waves, they splinter into enormous fragments. Of these fragments, which are borne in all direc- tions by wind and. tide, the outlines greatly vary : sometimes they assume a beautiful, sometimes a fantastic character; representing, with but little aid from the imagination, old ruined keeps of Nor- man castles, long lines of frowning battlements, minarets and domes of Moorish mosques, and the tapering spires, arched roofs, and flying buttresses ■( ICEBERGS AND ICE-FIELDS. 23 of medieval cathedrals. When illummated by the clear radiance of an Arctic sun, their beauty becomes something weird and almost awful ; so that probably the time may come when the artist will seek inspiration from the icebergs of the Polar Seas, as he now does in the forest-depths, on the sea-shore, or in the piny mounta^in glen. Masses of ice rise annually from the bosom, so to speak, of the Arctic Ocean, and accumulating together, slowly develop, in conjunction with the ruins of half-dissolved icebergs, into ice-fields of sur- prising extent, the area of which is frequently com- puted by thousands of square yards. Their thick- ness varies, but is always inferior to that of the icebergs. It is not uncommon for the latter, however, to attain an elevation of three hundred feet; and an idea of their gigantic dimensions may be gained from the fact that the submerged portion is usually four to eight times the height of the mass which rises above the waves. During the winter, hills, floes, and fields of ice so congeal and bind together as to cover ocean with a compact and impene- trable crust ; an immense snowy waste, broken up by walls and columns of strange design, whose crystal surfaces reflect in changing gleams of r^ 24 DISCOVERY IN THE NORTH. ,i I i amethyst, azure, gold, vermilion, emerald, the wondrous fires of the northern auroras. When, after a long absence, the sun returns and shoots his rays obliquely athwart the Pole, the crust breaks up in every direction; the dislocation rapidly extends ; and sweeping ocean-currents carry to the southward the blocks and islets of ice, which roll and glide, and chase and cross each other, and sometimes dash wildly together, in an indescribable disorder, and with a din which re- sounds afar ! Dreary as is the region the principal features of which we have thus briefly described, its explora- tion has been undertaken by many brave and ad- venturous spirits, either from love of enterprise or from a thirst for scientific knowledge, or from both motives combined. A little more than three cen- turies ago, it was ut^-^rly unknown to geographers; in the maps a gloomy blank indicated its position, and nothing more; but now, despite the difficulties which beset its approach, despite its protracted a ,i oppressive winters, despite its real and im- r^^inary terrors, the outlines of its shores are known with almost scientific accuracy, and its various bays, sounds, gulfs, creeks, and channels have THE LABOURS OP BRAVE MEN. 25 been carefully surveyed. It is known that im- mediately around the Pole, and beyond the vast tracts of ice and snow which render the work of the explorer at once so laborious and so dangerous, lies an open sea. The climate of these strange regions has been studied in all its changes ; their natural and physical history has been closely in- vestigated ; we are familiar with their meteor- ological phenomena. It is true that something still remains to be done by human skill and courage, that on certain points our information is imperfect ; but on the whole our knowledge of the Polar Lands is both comprehensive and exact. This comprehensiveness and this accuracy are due to the heroic energy of such men as Ross and Parry, Franklin and M'Clintock, Kane, Richardson, and Scoresby. To swell the sum of scientific acquisition, they have not feared to en- dure the greatest hardships and to encounter the greatest dangers. It is to the life and work of Scoresby this little volume will be dedicated ; and in his life, as in his work, the youthful reader will find much to admire, and much to imitate. MHPPI •^ i I I L I m CHAPTER II. SCORESBY S EARLY YEARS. ILLIAM SCOEESBY, the subject of the following sketch, was bom at Whitby, in 1789. We think it desirable to tell the story of his life, though he was a man of no distinguished lin- eage, and who neither in arts nor arms acquired renown; whose name, indeed, has never been loudly sounded by the trump of Fame, because it is the record of an individual of active and observant mind, who did good service in his generation to the cause of science ; of an individual of devout piety, who laboured to teach and amend the ways of his fellow-creatures ; of a sincere believer, and an earnest philanthropist, who did what work there came to him to do in a spirit of honesty, truthfulness, and zeal. The example of such a man will, it is hoped, be of use to some of our SCORESBY S PARENTS. 27 readers, who, studying his simple annals, will see how easy it is to employ one's mind in beneficial labour, to aid in the amelioration of humanity, to further the progress of knowledge, and will be in- duced, in like manner, to follow the path of duty with unwavering footsteps, diverging neither at the voice of pleasure nor the call of ambition. William Scoresby was happy in his parents, his father, an experienced seaman, of considerable intelligence, unimpeachable integrity, and strict, almost austere, piety ; his mother, affectionate, faithful, conscientious, and well-cultured. Over his childhood these two watched with an admir- able care ; neither too rigid in discipline, nor too yielding in love ; and neglecting neither the edu- cation of his heart nor the training of his mind. Their religious views were characterized by a severity that is now becoming, perhaps unfortu- nately, more and more uncommon ; but they suc- ceeded in impressing their son with a sense of honour and a love of the Sabbath which, we fear, would now be regarded as "old-fashioned." In a charming autobiographical sketch which he left behind him, he says : — " My veneration for the Sabbath was such, that I not only declined play, but even scarcely dared ,*5BBS V > 28 A REMINISCENCE OF BOYHOOD. to pick up any trifling article that I might happen to find without an owner on the street or field on that day, and was not a little surprised at greater boys than myself appropriating them to their own use as soon as ever they discovered them. I re- collect one Sunday having found a penknife with six blades, quite new, and to me a great treasure. No owner appearing to claim it, I was tempted to pick it up. After carrying it about me a week, being no longer able to bear the pain of conscience it gave me, I threw it into the river near the place where I found it. I also recollect on another occasion, when proceeding to purchase* some trifling article at a country house where it was wont to be kept for sale, I asked some boys whom I met bj?" the way whether there was any to be got. They declared it was all sold, they themselves having purchased the last. I advanced, however, to make personal inquiry at the house, and found to my astonishment that the boys had told me a wilful untruth. The remark I made on the occasion was expressive of the abhorrence I felt at such great boys telling lies ; and I was greatly astonished that they should so wantonly sport with the favour of the Almighty, who, I was taught to believe, would not love a liar. A TYRANNICAL PEDAGOGUE. 29 These impressions, however, I found from later experience were merely the effects of education and of a tender natural conscience ; for they grew weaker and weaker as I began to see more of life, and to associate with persons less scrupulous than myself." Scoresby acquired the rudiments of knowledge, as was customary in those days, from an elderly dame of mild and amiable manners ; such an one as Shenstone has so graphically described in his poem of "The Schoolmistress." But as soon as he was old enough he was removed to a boys' school, kept by a pedagogue who realized the type of the ferocious and arbitrary master we are apt to imagine to ha\ e been the creation of novelists and tale-tellers. This man did not only employ the ordinary means of punishment, — such as the cane or ferule, both of which he could use with curious dexterity, and both of which he took care should be of more than ordinary magnitude, — but he would lock offending boys in the school, and keep them for several hours in darkness, after the rest of the scholars had departed ; he would strap the unfortunate little culprits to a bench, and keep them immovably fixed for hours together ; and, at other times, he would fasten a ?" 80 SCHOOLBOYS AND THEIR TEACHERS. cord to their thumbs, an Inquisition-like torture, and then passing it through a pulley above them, would hoist them up so as to leave only their toes on the ground. In this cruel posture, with their arms above their heads, and their thumbs almost disjointed, he would detain those who had seriously offended him during the absence of the school at dinner. Happily, such masters no longer exist ; but, unhappily, the race of unruly, turbulent, and dis- obedient schoolboys has not died out. Do not our young readers think, now that discipline is so mild and considerate, now that their tutors are men of such high character, who labour anxiously and earnestly for their good, now that the paths of knowledge have been cleared of wounding thorns and made easy to the indus- trious wayfarer, — do they not think that it is time they abandoned the old traditional decep- tions, the bad habits of idleness and untruthful- ness, and honestly endeavoured to profit to the utmost by the abundant means of self-improve- ment now brought within their reach ? Fain would we see English boys as bold and daring and high-spirited as they ever have been. But they may be bold, and yet honourable ; daring, A YOUTHFUL ADVENTURE. 31 and yet obedient; high-spirited, and yet courte- ous. As the boy, so the man ; as the seed, so the flower. Let them cultivate in youth those graces of truth, generosity, purity, and diligence, which are the best ornaments of manhood. Scoresby continued at the school of which we have spoken imtil 1800, when he was ten years of age. A singular accident then interrupted for a time the regular course of his studies. His father was then captain of a whaling-ship, the Dundee; and on his voyage to the North he put in at Whitby, to take leave of his wife and family. On his going on board, he took with him his little son to see the vessel, intending him to return with the pilot who would steer her out of harbour. William was so fascinated by the novelties which met his eye in every direction, that he resolved he too would sail to Greenland ; and, consequently, when the pilot was ready to depart, Master Scoresby was nowhere to be found, No answer was made to the call for " William," until his father's summons was too peremptory to be longer disobeyed. Then he came upon deck, hare-headed, leaving those who might observe the circumstance to infer that he had lost his hat, and that it was impossible for him 32 OUT AT SEA. '' to go ashore without one. His father under- stood the childish device ; but pleased, perhaps, by the boy's evident inclination for a seafar- ing life, he resolved to take him with him. A message to that effect was sent to his mother; and the sailors, having been provided with the necessary materials by the captain, quickly rigged out "Master William" in correct nautical at- tire. His joy at j&nding himself at sea received, however, something of a check when he had been two or three days on board. The weather was fine, the wind brisk and favourable ; and the ship sped merrily along under a press of canvas. Officers and men were busily engaged in making things neat and orderly between decks, and arranging the stores in their proper places. In the consequent bustle the " look-out " had been for a while neglected, when suddenly a voice on deck was heard to exclaim, — " A ship bearing close down upon us ! " The reader must recollect that England was then engaged in war with France and her allies, and that the North Sea swarmed with the enemy's ships of war and privateers. The look- out man's announcement was, therefore, one of AN ENEMY IN SIOUT. 33 the greatest importance, and sounded the signal of alarm throughout the Dundee. Captain Scoresby soon made out the approach- ing ship to be both a vessel of war and an enemy. She was bearing down, steering easterly, exactly so as to intercept their track, but not on any of the courses usually steered for England, France, or Denmark. When discovered, she was already within little more than a mile of the whaler, and in a quarter of an hour would be within hailing distance. With characteristic energy and coolness, Cap- tain Scoresby made every preparation for the defence of his ship, determined not to yield her up without a struggle. She was well armed and well manned, carrying a crew of between fifty and sixty men, and twelve guns, eighteen-pounders. Still, she was manifestly unable to cope with a ship of war, or even with a privateer of any size. Scoresby's design, therefore, was to surprise the enemy by suddenly displaying his armament in such a manner as to give the impression that his ship was really more formidable than appeared. And it happened that circumstances connected with the qualifications of the crew and the build and armament of the ship, favoured the strata- (628) 3 ^1 34 scoresby's stratagem. gem. For, not unaware that he might be called upon to encounter such a peril as that which now confronted him, Captain Scoresby had se- lected, out of the variety of ''hands" offering themselves for the voyage, two men of somewhat unusual qualifications, — one being an adept in beating the drum, the other in "winding the boatswain's call." The construction of the ship was, as we have said, another favourable circumstance. She was " deep-waisted," like a war-vessel, with a high quarter-deck. Yet, all her guns being below, she gave no outward indication, at a distance, of either poi-ts or armament. On the first alarm, the men, by a spontaneous impulse, had swarmed upon deck ; but their re- tirement was immediately commanded. The gunners were despatched to their quarters, with orders to prepare for action, but to lift no port. The men engaged in navigating the ship were kept as much as possible on the lee-side of the deck, where, from the vessel's heeling and the enemy's windward position, they were sufficiently concealed. The "drummer" and "boatswain" — two important personages ! — received their special instructions ; and the whole crew, through the ^ THE ENEMY AT HAND. 35 orders given, began to comprehend their com- mander's ingenious manoeuvre, and were ready- to carry it out efficiently. Short as was the time, the coolness of the commander and the quick intelligence of the men were so complete, that every arrangement was made before the enemy arrived within hailing distance. At that moment, as, indeed, to all appearance from the very outset, everything visible on board the Dundee indicated an uncon- cerned quietness, and an utter unconsciousness of danger from the enemy's approach. The men were lying prone upon the deck. The captain was calmly pacing the quarter-deck, and he and the helmsman were the only persons who could be descried from the deck of the assailant. Without showing any colours in answer to the English ensign waving at the mizzen-peak, — " The flag that's braved a thousand years The battle and the breeze," — the stranger bore down within short musket-shot distance. A loud and almost unintelligible roar of her captain, through his speaking-trumpet, was understood to mean the usual inquiry rela- tive to the nationality and name of the ship. Scoresby vouchsafed no other reply than a signi- 36 scoresby's success. ficant wave of the hand. Immediately the drum beat to quarters ; and while its roll still pealed through the ship, sharply rose the boatswain's whistle. His hoarse voice then shouted forth the customary orders ; the apparently plain sides of the ship seemed to be suddenly pierced ; six ports on a side were simultaneously raised, re- vealing a row of "grinning cannon -mouths" ready to pour forth a volley of fire and shot. The stratagem was complete, and so was its success. The adversary was panic-struck. Men on his deck, some with lighted matches in their hands, could be seen to fall flat, as if they had been prostrated by cannon-balls ; the guns re- mained silent; the helm flew to pore, and the yards to the wind, on the opposite tack ; and without waiting for a reply to his summons, or venturing on a single broadside, the stranger sufMenly hauled off*, under full sail, and was seen nc< more ! During the interval of suspense, young Scoresby was in a condition of strange perplexity and ex- citement, in being so suddenly and unexpectedly thrown from the pacific life of a schoolboy into all the perils and adventures of those who " go down to the sea in ships." The incident led his ■sr YOUNG SCORESBY AT SCHOOL. 37 father to reflect that he was exposing him, at a very early age, to a too arduous experience, and he entertained the idea of leaving him in Shet- land until his return. WiLh this view he ar- ranged for his reception into a school at Lerwick. But his ingenuity was not equal to his son's. When the lad observed that the vessel was on the point of sailing, he hired a boat at a heavy price, and overtook her before she got clear of the harbour. The voyage out and home was safely performed, and on young Scoresby's return, he resumed his usual studies. An intelligent and industrious lad, his progi'ess was rapid; and in 1802 it was thought advis- able to send him to a first-class school near Lon- don. This was under the charge uf a Mr. Stork, of whom his pupil says, " He was a rigid disci- plinarian, but a teacher of the first order. His system, which was founded on emulation and the distribution of rewards, the result of small sub- scriptions and fines, possessed a stimulus which awakened the energies of the most unambitious ; and his plans bf ing uniform and methodical, and ably supported and enforced by his numerous assistants, the result in many instances was most brilliant For my own part," he adds, " the ad- !i m Ml' 38 BRED TO THE SEA. vantage I gained was incalculable. In grammar I attained uncommon proficiency ; in calculation, much facility ; in writing, much improvement. On the first weekly examination of exercise conies I was almost at the bottom of the list, my number being below seventy : at the conclu- sion of a quarter of a year I stood number two. In the exercises for calculation, and in the divi- sion of the weeki'y funds, I gained many prizes. The exertion, how3ver, on a delicate frame was severe. I had to rise at five in the morning, and to pursue the routine of the seminary until the same hour in the evening, with the usual intc^'^als for refreshment, after which I never failed to have some exercise for my employment at home ; and sometimes, which was optional, attended the familiar lectures of Mr. Stork, on interesting branches of science, in the evening." In the following year we find Captain Scoresby in command of the Resolution. He now made his son the constant companion of his voyages, and trained him thoroughly in his professional duties. Though still very young, he showed a natural aptitude for a "naval career," and on every occasion displayed the highest courage and 5 Mi " AWAY NORTH." 39 complete presence of mind. His progress was so rapid that in 1806 he was pronounced compe- tent to undertake the responsibilities of chief officer; and in this capacity, still under his father's command, he sailed from Whitby in 1806. The Resolution, on this occasion, left the whole oi the whaling fleet behind her, and pushed further northward than any ship before had ever ventured. Captain Scoresby entertained a belief, which has since been proved to have been well founded, that an open sea existed near the Pole ; and he resolved on an attempt to reach it. The enterprise seemed hopeless from the compact and apparently impenetrable state of the ice. But Scoresby was a man of inexhaustible resource ; and, being seconded by an energetic and loyal crew, he carried his ship into open waters. In fact, he continued to advance until he had reached 81" 81' N., or within about five hundred and t a niles of the Pole. Their situation was sin- gu'iii r id solitary. No ship, possibly no human being, was within a hundred or a hundred and fifty leagues. They represented the most ad- vanced post of human civilization ; the sentinels stationed by science on the threshold of an un- known world. 40 A NAVAL VOLUNTEER. !1 ^1- - Ill But the sea began to freeze ; and, to prevent his ship from being hopelessly pent up in the ice-fields, Captain Scoresby was compelled to put about and make for home. In the autumn of 1806 young Scoresby vrent to Edinburgh, where he attended the winter classes at the University, profiting greatly by the lectures of the professors. His improvement was due, however, not . ?" to his own industry and method than to their i. lirable instructions. The teacher can do nothing without the concur- rence of the taught. In March 1807, he was called away to resume his duties on board his father's vessel ; and after his return from the fishery, he volunteered, in response to the call of the Government, to assist in bringing from Copenhagen to a British port the fleet which had been recently captured from the Danes. He was the first at Whitby to offer his services in the national cause. "All the sailors of the port," he says, " previous to my taking this step, and which was a powerful reason for it, refused their assistance, from the foolish persuasion that it was a scheme for impressing them. But on my name being given in as a volunteer, they came forward to the number of SCORESBY S ARCTIC VOYAGES. 41 fifty-four in one day, and afterwards others en- gaged in the service." He was much impressed by his visit to Copenhagen, which exhibited painful traces of the he ,vy bombardment it had suffered from Lord Gambler's fleet. During the voyages of 1808 and 1809, Scoresby exhibited that faculty of ready and accurate observation — a much rarer faculty than is generally supposed — which afterwards distin- guished him among Arctic navigators. He em- ployed all his leisure time in studying the fauna and flora of the Polar World, and made a valu- able collection of plants previously unknown. His investigations into the forms of snow crystals — those fairy playthings of Nature — led to some interesting results. He found that, in the parti- culars both of beauty and variety, the delicate flakes which fall so silently and yet so rapidly on the earth equal, if they do not surpass, the most beautiful and varied of the microscopic ob- jects procurable in the animal and vegetable king- doms. He ascertained that the principal con- figurations are the stelliform (" star-shaped") and hexagonal ("six-sided"), though numerous other fanciful and elegant outlines may be discovered. 42 A WHALING ADVENTURE. V;- I. ■ J ■ i I if ■\ One of those incidents which render the whale fishery so perilous a pursuit occurred in the voyage of 1809. The harpooner of one of the ship's boats, during a fresh gale of wind, having struck a sucking whale that was under maternal guidance, the other boats were scattered about in the hope of entangling and capturing the mother. It pur- sued a circular route roimd its cub, followed by the boats ; but its velocity was so considerable that they failed to keep pace with it. After some time young Scoresby also engaged in the chase, and, having marked the manoeuvres of the mother- whale, selected a situation where he conceived it was likely to make its appearance : it rose in the very spot, and — though unperceived by the whalers — struck the boat so heavy a blow that the bottom was driven in, and it sank in a moment. For- tunately, assistance was close at hand, and after a few minutes of anxiety and peril, all were rescued without having sustained any particular injury. In the autumn Scoresby agam repaired to Edinburgh and resumed his attendance at the University, selecting the classes of mathematics, natural history, logic, and anatomy. He devoted himself to the pursuit of knowledge with extra- ILLNESS AND RECOVERY. 43 ordinary earnestness ; with an aU-absorbing devo- tion, indeed, which threatened serious results. "For years," he says, "I had been of a consump- tive habit. For years my appetite was so bad that I knew not what it was to enjoy a dimier ; and for the same period I was liable to severe colds. I had frequently hectic symptoms, and sensible perspiration altogether ceased. I was so enervated when in Edinburgh that the exertion of running up a dozen of the coUege steps would cause my heart to palpitate with such a violence that I could distinctly hear it, and would raise my pulse from ninety or ninety-five— its most usual rate— to one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty vibrations in a minute ! Yet I never applied for advice; but pursuing a system of great abstemiousness and regularity of living, and avoiding every kind of excess, for which,' indeed, I had no taste, I was graciously upheld! and enabled to go through with my studies in the most effectual and uninterrupted manner." CHAPTER III. SCORESBY THE NAVIGATOR. h ■ I [N the 5th of October 1810, Scoresby attained his majority; and on the same day, by the unanimous consent of the owners of the vessel, he was promoted to the com- mand of the Resolution, from which his father had retired. The distinction was unprecedented in the case of so young a man, but was fully earned by his integrity of character, firmness of purpose, superior capacity, and great scientific acquirements. In the following year he married, and in 1813 a son was bom to him. In 1813, also, he left the Resolution, and took the com- mand of a large, new, and finely-equipped ship, the Esh, in which he made several voyages, greatly to the advantage of his employers, and to his own private profit. His success, indeed, was extra- ordinary, and must be ascribed, partly to his SCORESBY S FIRST BOOK. 46 nautical abilities, and partly to the influence he exercised over his crew. But he devoted his attention to other than commercial objects only, and was always on the watch for an occasion of adding to his stores of knowledge. At one time we find him experiment- ing on the difference of temperature in sea-water at the surface and at various depths, inventing for this purpose an apparatus which he called the Marine Diver ; at another he was collecting some hitherto unknown sea-weed or marine plant. His mind could not be idle. It was incessantly and beneficially active. In 1814 he communicated a paper, entitled "A Description of the Polar Ice," which attracted so much attention that the nat- uralist. Von Buch, thought it worthy of being placed before the great physicist, Gay Lussac. Von Buch wrote of the author, — then only in his twenty-sixth year, — "He is one of the most courageous and skilful of the captains who fre- quent the Greenland Seas ; he, indeed, is a man worthy of being placed along with a Hudson, a Dampier, and a Cook ; and, if he should ever be placed at the head of a voyage of discovery, I am persuaded that his name will descend to future ages with those of the most able navigators." 46 WHALING VOYAGES. This was high praise from such a man ; for the value of all praise depends upon the source whence it proceeds. It seems to have been at this period that Mr. Scoresby became more sensible of the value of rehgion, and began to comprehend that the " pride of life " must not be allowed to render the soul forgetful of "the promise of the life that now is" in Christ, " and of that which is to come." As if to deepen his sense of the worthlessness of worldly pleasures, and to test the strength of his new re- solves, he was exposed to a series of bitter dis- appointments; which, however, did but bring forth the sterling excellences of his character. His voyage of 1 8 1 5 was his first failure ; the cargo which he brought back to Whitby consisting only of 130 tuns of oil, representing nine whales captured. The voyage of 1816 was even a greater failure, from a commercial point of view, though it did not terminate so disastrously as at one time threatened, while it brought out all Scoresby's courage, promptitude, ingenuity, and resolution. The Esk had scarcely entered within the con- fines of the Arctic Kegions when she was beset by a terrible storm, such as Scoresby had never be- fore experienced. Though he had made fourteen A CRITICAL POSITION. 47 voyages to the North, and passed through many dangers, he had met with nothing so appalling, nor been so nearly on the point of ruin. While labouring in the gale, he was horrified to find a huge mass of ice bearing down upon the embar- rassed ship ; at one instant covered with foam, the next concealed from sight by the waves, and in- stantly afterwards reared to a prodigious height above the surface of the sea. In order to pass this barrier, the Esh was steered towards a small creek or fissure discoverable in it ; but the ship refused to obey her helm, and the opportunity was lost. A second opening was soon afterwards de- scried. This time the vessel, as sailors say, behaved better, and entering the narrow channel, she went through it in safety to the open sea beyond. This occurred on the 2nd of May. With only tolerable success the fishery was prosecuted until the 1 9 th of June. On that day, while eftecting a passage between a couple of immense ice-floes, the Esh sustained a considerable pressure ; but it was not apprehended that she had suffered any serious injury. Such, however, was the case; and as soon as ihe ice- floes floated off, and no longer supported her, she began to sink ! 48 TURNING A SHIP UPSIDE DOWN. t I '*l Happily several ships were in sight, and a signal of distress soon brought the John of Greenock, commanded by Scoresby's brother-in- law, Mr. Jackson, to their assistance. Pumps and buckets were plied lustily, until the extent of the mischief could be ascertained. It was alarm- ing enough ! A large piece of the after-keel, and a portion of one of the planks of the vessel's bottom had been torn away, leaving a large hole, through which the water entered freely. What was to be done? Many suggestions were put forward, but as all were more or less impracticable, Scoresby determined on turning the ship upside down, so that the carpenter might obtain access to the injured part. Such an operation was, to say the least, un- usual, but having determined upon it, Scoresby set to work with characteristic energy. All her stores and movable furniture were taken out and piled upon the ice, and then, on the 30th of June, ropes were carried under the vessel, and attached on the side furthest from the ice to the tops of the fore and main masts, which were weighted with heavy anchors, to assist by gravi- tation in the intended rotation of the ship. When she had sunk as far as possible, an ingenious THE " ESK IN SAFETY. 49 ^ apparatus of blocks and pulleys on the ice was set in motion, and no fewer than a hundred and fifty men were employed in hauling in the ropes so as to turn her bottom upwards. All their force, however, availed only to bring her down some distance in the water. At this juncture Scoresby went on board with a hundred and twenty men, and having drawn them up on one side of the deck, caused them to run in a body to the other, giving in this way so sudden and violent a shock to the ship that the men feared she would accom- plish an immediate somersault ! Such was not the case; and as all their efforts to brin^^ the keel uppermost failed, they were compelled to adopt some other plan. It was then determined to partition off the injured portion of the vessel from the rest. This was expeditiously done, and being tightly calked, formed a strong barrier against the influx of the water. A thrumhed sail — that is, a sail coated with oakum and rope-yam — wa'=' also applied externally, and being sucked into the leak, materially helped to fill it up. The stores were then got on board, and, towed by the John, the Esk safely entered Whitby harbour on the 27th of July. Intelligence of the accident which had befallen '523) 1 60 A REMARKABLE VOYAGE. [■ 5) her had reached England long before, and her owners and insurers had given her up as lost. Their surpritse at her safe arrival was equal to their gratification, and they did not fail to reward and acknowledge the persevering ingenuity to which it was due. It seems desirable here to quote a passage from Sccresby's autobiography in illustration of his thoughts and views at this time, and as expUna- tory of the step which he afterwards adopted " The dealings of Providence with me on this voyage," he says, "were most remarkable. It was a series of difficulties and dangers, and abounded with striking displays of a Divine interposition for our eventual preservation. Tl ese various try- ing circumstances called forth an earnestness, and, occasionally, an energy in my private devotions (which, however coldly performed, were seldom omitted), such as I cannot but think were in some measure accepted ; yet I am conscious that, gener- ally, my secret reserve of sin was iiot overcome, nor the subjugation of my own will to that of God accomplished. I began to perceive through these trials the design of Providence : it appeared to me that the object was to turn me from vanity and the unsubdued love of sin to the love of God." M scoresby's sixteenth voyage. 51 I During his stay at Whitby he unbosomed him- self to his clerical friend, Dr. Whitby, and gained much benefit from his wise and judicious counsel. In the interval of his whaling voyages — 181 6—1 7 — he prepared his work on the " Arctic Regions," enriching it with the results of his latest r-bservations. He also wrote and read before the Wemerian Society a paper on " The Pressure of the Sea at Great Depths." He could not be idle. His active mind was never happy unless engaged in useful employment. He entered on his sixteenth voyage on the 1st of April 1817. It proved a complete failure, only two whales being caught. In the course of the voyage he touched at the wild and dreary island of Jan Mayen, which was then very little known. He discovered it to be volcanic, the beach being covered with magnetic iron-sand, and the foot of the cliffs with burnt clay, slag, and lava. He also discovered and examined two ex- tinct craters, one of them a fine basin of consider- able dimensions. On his return home, finding the owners of his ship disposed to attribute his want of success to a want of energy on the part of the captain, he resigned his command. He then took up the i^ 52 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. : ! . 5- 'S' .. in interesting question which at that time excited so much attention in England, — Was there, or was there not, a communication between the North Atlantic and the North Pacific Ocean ? In other words. Did there exist a North- West Passage? Was it possible for a ship, entering the Polar Regions by Baffin's Bay, to quit them, on the other side of the American continent, by Behring's Straits ? Scoresby, in common with most men of science, contended that such a passage did exist, and strongly advocated the fitting out of an expedition to be employed in the great but difficult work of Arctic discovery. He himself engaged in the work in the course of the voyage of 1818, which he undertook in a ship, the Fame, belonging to his father. It was on this occasion that he landed in Spitzbergen, and made the observations which we have quoted in a preceding chapter. He also essayed some valuable and interesting experi- ments with a view of ascertaining the cause of the variation in the colour of the Greenland Sea, which he found to depend upon the quality of the water. To discover the nature of the colouring sub- stance, ho procured a quantity of snow from a piece of ice that had been washed by the sea, and k h COLOURING SUBSTANCE OF THE SEA. 53 was much discoloured by the deposition of some peculiar matter upon it. On dissolving a little of this snow in a wine-glass it appeared perfectly nebulous, the water containing a great number of semi-transparent spherical substances, with others resembling small fragments of fine hair. He proceeded to examine these with a compound microscope, and obtained the following results : — The semi-transparent globules appeared to con- sist of an animal of the medusa kind, from one- twentieth to one-thirtieth of an inch in diameter. Its surface was marked with twelve distinct patches, or nebulae, of brownish-coloured dots, dis- posed in pairs ; four pairs, or sixteen pairs alter- nately, composing one of the nebulae. When the water containing these animals was heated, it emitted a very strong odour, not ur' Ve the smell of oysters when thrown on hot coals, but much more offensive. The fibrous, or hair-like sub- stances, were more easily examined, being of a darker hue. They varied in length from a point to one-tenth of an inch ; and, when highly mag- nified, proved to be beautifully moniliform. In the longest specimens the number of bead-like articulations was about thirty; hence their dia- meter could not have exceeded the one-three- I :4l i 54 THE INFINITELY LITTLE. hundredth part of an inch. Some of these sub- stances seemed to vary their appearance ; but whether they were living animals, and gifted with locomotion, Scoresby could not then determine. He afterwards examined the different qualities of sea-water, and found that they abounded in water of an olive-green colour ; and that they occurred, but in less quantity, in the bluish- green water. The number of medusae in the olive-green sea was found to be immense. They were not more than one-fourth of an inch apart In this proportion, a cubic inch of water would contain 64 ; a cubic foot, 110,592 ; a cubic fathom, 23,887,872 ; and a cubic mile about 23,888,000,000,000,000! From soundings made where these animals were discovered, it appeared that the sea was about a mile in depth. Probably, the depth to which they extended was not more than two hundred and fifty fathoms ; in which case the enormous number we have mentioned might occur in a space of two miles square. It may give a clearer idea of the amount of medusse in this extent, if we calculate the length of time that would be requisite, with a certain number of persons, for counting their legions. Well, let us suppose that a single individual could count (which t • i A DROP OF WATER. 65 is barely possible) a million in seven days : it would have occupied eighty thousand persons from the creation of the world to 1818 to com- plete the enumeration! What a stupendous idea this fact gives of the immensity of creation, and of the bounty of Divine Providence, in furnishing such a profusion of life in a region so remote from human enter- prise ! Nor are these animals, notwithstanding their minuteness, without their recognized place m the grand economy of creation. They form almost the sole nourishment of the sepise, actinise, helices, and other genera of molluscs ; which, in their turn, supply the whale with its food, and enable it to maintain its existence in the deep waters of the Northern seas. Scoresby remarks that the vastness of their number, and their exceeding minuteness, are cir- cumstances, in connection with these animalcules, of surprising interest. " In a drop of water," he says, "examined by a power of 28 224 (magni- fied superficies), there were fifty in number, on an average, in each square of the micrometer glass, of an eight hundred and fortieth of an inch ; and as the drop occupied an inch on a plate of glass containing five hundred and twenty-nine of these 66 WONDER UPON WONDER. m rli squares, there must have been in this single drop of water, taken out of the yellowish-green sea, in a place by no means the most discoloured, about 26,450 animalcules. Hence, reckoning sixty drops to a dram, there would be a number in a gallon of water exceeding, by one half, the amount of the population of the whole globe ! It gives a powerful conception of the minuteness and wonders of creation, when we think of more than twenty- six thousand animals living, obtaining subsistence, and moving perfectly at their ease, without annoyance to one another, in a single drop of water! " The diameter of the largest of these animal- cules," he continues, "was only the two-thousandth of an inch, and many only the four-thousandth. The army which Buonaparte led into Russia in 1812, estimated at five hundred thousand men, would have extended in a double row, or two men abreast, with two feet three inches space for each couple of men, a distance of one hundred and six miles and a half; the same number of these animalcules, arranged in a similar way in two rows, but touching one another, would reach only five feet two and a half inches. A whale requires a sea, an ocean to sport in ; about a hundred and SCORESBY's " ARCTIC REGIONS." 57 fifty millions of these animalcules would have abundant room in a tumbler of water!" In 1819 we find Scoresby at Edinburgh, where he arranged with Messrs. Constable for the publi- cation of his work on the "Arctic Regions," and devoted himself assiduously to its completion. He had purchased a one-third share in a whaling ship which was being built by a Liverpool firm, and of which he was to take the command, and he purposed resuming his Greenland voyages in the following year. Meantime he prepared and published some valuable scientific memoirs. On the death of his mother he left Edinburgh and removed to Liverpool, where his ship, the Baffin, was launched on the loth of February 1820. She put to sea on March 18, and returned on August 23 with a larger cargo than had ever before been imported from Greenland into Liver- pool. During his absence his work on the "Arctic Regions" was published, and was received with the most flattering welcome. It had a large sale in England, was translated into French, and the most eminent authorities pronounced it the most accurate and comprehensive work on the subject which had been given to the world. It was 58 IN PURSUIT OF A WHALE. specially valuable on account of its honesty. It was a record of actual observations, of well- authenticated facts, and not the ingenious theories of a fanciful speculator. It is unnecessary to chronicle the successive voyages undertaken by this energetic and indus- trious navigator. In that of 1822, however, an incident occurred which may be described in these pages as illustrative of the perils attending the whale-fishery. The boats had gone in pursuit of a whale. After they had been absent for some time, and on coming within speaking range of the ship. Captain Scoresby, noticing an unusual air of melancholy about their crews, inquired what had happened. The officer in command of the first boat replied : "We have lost Carr!" This melancholy and unexpected intelligence caused a general conster- nation, and it was some time before Scoresby felt able to listen to the details of the catastrophe. So far as could be ascertained from the crew of the boat of which he had charge, but whose minds were completely confused by the sad event they had witnessed, the circumstances were as fol- low : — A FATAL ACCIDENT. 59 I The two boats that had been so long absent had, at the outset, separated from their com- panions ; and, allured by the excitement of the chase and the fineness of the weather, had pro- ceeded until far out of sight of the ship. The whale they pursued led them into the midst of a vast shoal. So numerous were the ocean levia- thans that their " blowing" was incessant ; and it was the belief of the men that they could not have been fewer than a hundred. Fearful of alarming them without striking any, they re- mained for some time motionless, watching for a favourable opportunity to begin the attack. One of them at length rose so near the boat of which William Carr was harpooner, that he ventured to pull towards it, though it was meeting him, and afforded but an indifferent chance of success. He, however, fatally for himself, suc- ceeded in striking it. The boat and fish passing each other with great rapidity after the stroke, the line was jerked out of its place, and, instead of "running" over the stem, was cast over the gunwale ; its pressure in this unfavourable posi- tion had the effect of heeling the boat, so that the side sank below the water, and thereupon it began to fill. I i ' i ii ■ M 60 DEATH OF THE HARPOONEK. In this emergency the harpooner, a fine active fellow, caught hold of the bight of the ropo, and attempted to right the boat by restoring it to its place. In some inexplicable way, however, a turn of the line flew over his arm, in an instant dragged him overboard, and plunged him under water — to rise no more! The accident was so sudden that only one man, who had his eye upon him at the time, was aware of what had occurred ; so that when the boat righted, as it immediately did, though half full of water, a general cry arose, "Where is Carr?" It is impossible, perhaps, to imagine a death more awfully sudden and unexpected. The deadly bullet, though it speeds through the air with a velocity which renders it invisible, seldom pro- duces so instantaneous a destruction. The whale, at its first descent, usually dives at the rate of about eight or nine miles per hour, or thirteen to fifteen feet per second. Now, as this unfortu- nate man was occupied in adjusting the line at the very water's edge, when it must have been perfectly tight, in consequence of the obstruction to its running out of the boat, the interval between the coiling of the rope around him and his dis- appearance could not have exceeded the third of THE GREENLAND COAST. 61 a second ; and in one second he must have been dracfged to the depth of ten or twelve feet! The accident was, indeed, so instantaneous that the sufferer had no time to shriek or call for help ; and the person who witnessed his lamentable fate observed, that though his eye was upon him at the instant, he could scarcely distinguish him as he disappeared. Captain Scoresby's account of this voyage was afterwards published (in 1823), under the title of a " Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale- Fishery ; " and it is replete with matter equally interesting and instructive. On the 8th of June the Baffin sighted land, it appears, in lat. 74" 6', at the distance of about fifty miles. This was the eastern coast of Greenland, being a northward extension or continuation of that coast on which the ancient Icelandic colonies were planted in the tenth century. As the main design of Scoresby's voyage was not incompatible with researches in this unknown region, he resolved on penetrating immediately as near as possible to the shore. On the 2nd of July, in a kind of bay formed by the union of an ice-floe with a mass of drift- ice, a great ihoal of whales was discovered. All 62 CAPTURE OF A WHALE. the boats were despatched in pursuit, and remained on the watch, or in chase, for about ten hours ; but the weather was so calm and silent that almost every fish they approached within a ship's length took the alarm. The boats having been recalled by signal, two were sent, as a last effort, into a promising comer on the borders of a floe, where they had not remained long before a large whale rose near one of them, and received a harpoon. For nearly an hour afterwards it made no sign ; then came up exhausted to the surface, close to the place where the Baffin was moored to the ice. A second harpoon was immediately fastened, and lances fell so fast and thick that it had no power to descend again, but died in a few minutes, within fifty yards of the ship. Scoresby remarks that the extraordinary ex- haustion of this whale was owing to the length of time it had remained under water, and the depth to which it descended. Most other animals, he says, when attacked, instinctively pursue a conduct which is generally the best calculated to secure their escape ; but not so the whale. Were it to remain on the surface after being harpooned, to press steadily forward in one direction, and to exert the wonderful strength that it possesses ; or FACTS ABOUT LEVIATHAN'. 63 were it to await the charge of its enemies, and repel them by well-timed blows from its formid- able tail, it would not infrequently conquer in its contest with man, whose strength and bulk scarcely equals a nine hundredth part of its own. But, like all the lower animals, it was designed by Him who "created great whales, and every living creature that moveth," to be subject to man; and, therefore, when attacked by him, it perishes through its very simpleness. Instead of repelling his attacks, it generally dives at once to an immense depth ; where, under a pressure frequently exceeding two hundred thousand ton? upon its body, it grows so weary and spent that, on return- ing to the surface of the sea, it falls an easy prey. It may be pointed out, however, that the whale's conduct in this respect is due to the instinct which impels it to descend into the ocean-depths for escaping its natural enemies in the same element; and it also shows that whatever these enemies may be, whether sword-fish, thrashers, or sharks, it must be able, since this is its means of escape, to descend lower than they can, and to sustain a greater degree of pressure from the superincumbent waters. In the course of the month, Scoresby discovered i |i 64 A REMARKABLE MIRAGE. I f V ^ 1 ' several islands, and laid down tht position of some remarkable mountains on the mainland, christening them with the names of his friends, patrons, and men of eminence. On the 24th he was witness to a singular atmospheric phenomenon. After a day's survey of the shore, he returned to his ship about eleven o'clock at night. The weather was beautifully fine, the air quite mild. Owing to the warmth, the atmosphere was in a highly refractive state, and many remarkable appearances, therefore, were presented by the land and icebergs. But the most extraordinary eftect was the distinct inverted image of a ship in the clear sky, over the middle of a large bay or inlet in the distance the ship itself being entirely beyond the horizon. Similar appearances he had noticed before, but on this occasion Scoresby was struck by the perfection of the image, and the great distance of the vessel that it represented. In truth, it w^as defined with such admirable exactness that, on being examined through a good telescope, Scoresby could distinguish every sail, the "general rig of the ship," and its peculiar characteristics, so that he confidently pronounced it to be his father's ship, the Fame, — which, indeed, it afterwards proved to be; though, on comparin:^ A COAST VOYAGE. 65 notes with his father, he found that their relative positions at the time showed they must have been separated from one another by an interval of nearly thirty miles. Our indefatigable navigator continued his care- ful explorations of this hitherto unknown coast, which he found to be largely broken up by head- lands and inlets, presenting a diversified and even capricious aspect. The extent of his survey ranged over twelve hundred miles, if allowance be made for all these sinuosities ; in a direct line it mea- sured about four hundred, from lat. 69° 30' to 76° 30' N. The average elevation was found to be nearly 3000 feet, and the general appearance of the country "baiTen, rugged, and moun- tainous." In the course of his laborious explorations som^ interesting incidents occurred, with two or three of which we may relieve the even tenor of our narrative. On one occasion the Captain says he traced a hill towards the west for three or four miles, passing over a continuous surface of loose stones, or over beds of ice and snow, un+U he descended near Cape Swainson, a prominent and elevated headland, named after a distinguished naturalist, (528) 5 66 ESKIMO HABITATIONS. ! I to a flat, sandy beach, about a furlong in breadth. Here he discovered a circle of stones so artificially constructed that there could be no doubt it was the work of man. Soon afterwards he came to the remains of deserted habitations, consisting of a couple of circular walls, and, in some places, merely of rows of stones enclosing a clear area of five yrrds in diameter, laid out exactly in the man- ner in which the Eskimos prepare the ground for their summer tents. Moreover, several hollow tumuli were visible, each being neatly arched in the form of a bee-hive, with an opening either a« the top or in one of the sides. They varied in size from two and a-half to four and a-half feet across, inside the walls. Nearer the cape some still more striking evi- dences of human occupancy were found ; namely, a couple of cavities, enclosed by stones, on the edge of a bank. These had evidently been used as iire-places, for in them lay the remains of the fuel that had formerly been ignited, consisting of charred drift-wood, with half-burned moss, and a quantity of ashes. Several pieces of bone and wood, wi'ought by human industry, were also met with, and also the head of an arrow or small dart, rather neatly made of bone and tipped with a VEGETABLE LIFE. 67 small piece of iron. Whether the iron was native, or had been carried ashore in the timbers of some "vvreck, was difficult to determine. The manufacture closely resembled that of the iron implements of the Arctic Highlanders, discovered by Captain Boss, and probably had the same origin. From the state and situation in which it was found, Scoresby conjectured it had not been long out of use. It was lying in a tiny rock- ])Ool, and yet was not greatly corroded by rust. Obviously, it could have lain there but a few months. Scoresby saw scarcely any birds on the shore, tliough the waters swarmed with various species of eider-ducks and roaches. Numbers of winged insects, however, including butterflies, bees, and even mosquitoes, disported in the warm radiance 01 the summer sun. Several plants were flower- ing, and others fructifying, near the beach — among these the beautiful Ranunculus vdvalis and the graceful Potentilla verna. A merciful Creator is unwilling that the bleakest shore shall be wholly wanting in the charm of bloom and blossom. A kind of salix was the only arboreous plant our ex- plorer noticed. This willow expands to the extent of three feet or more, and grows to the thickness of l! 68 AN ESKIMO VILLAGE. one's little finger; yet it is so wonderfully accom- modated to the nature of the climate that it does not spring upward, in which case it would be quickly felled by the bitter winds, but spreads laterally, never rising higher than three or four inches above the ground, from which it derives both warmth and nourishment. Proceeding to the northward, Captain Scoresby fell in with remarkable traces of human habita- tion, and all of them recent, at the foot of an abrupt ridge, whicli he called Neill's Cliffs. Here were the remains of an Eskimo village, consisting of nine or ten huts closely set together, besides many others scattered about the margin of the level ground. The locality was admirably adapted for a winter residence, being elevated about fifty feet above the beach, perfectly dry, and presenting a rapid slope towards a river which bounded the little plain or plateau on the south, and towards the beach which limited it on the east. The roofs of all the huts had either been removed or had fallen in ; what remained consisted simply of an excavation in the ground at the brow of the bank, about four feet deep, fifteen feet long, and HUT AND TUNNEL. 69 six to nine feet wide. The sides of each hut were sustained by a wall of rough stones; and the bottom appeared to be made of gravel, moss, or clay. The access to these huts was after the usual Eskimo fashion — a horizontal tunnel about fifteen feet in length opening at one end on the side of the bank into the external air, and at the other end into the interior of the hut. It was so low, this underground gallery, that to enter his dwelling the owner must have crept on his hands and knees. The roofing consisted of stones and sods. As this kind of hut is deeply sunk in the earth, and is approached only by an underground pas- sage, it may fairly be characterized as a subter- ranean dwelling. In truth, it rises so little above the surface, that as the roof, when entire, is generally covered with sods, and clothed with moss or grass, it partakes of the appearance of the rest of the ground, and can hardly be distinguished from it. Scoresby was much struck by its admirable adaptation to the nature of the climate and the circumstances of its occupants. The uncivilized Eskimos, he says, use no fire in their huts, but only lamps, which serve both sr < « ^« 70 A SKILFUL CONSTIIUCTIOX. for lighting and culinary purposes ; hence they require, in the terrible rigour of an Arctic winter, which almost chills the heart and freezes the blood, to economize with the greatest care such artificial warmth as they are able to produce in their huts. The reader U see that for this purpose an underground dwelling, defended from the pene- trating frost by a close roof of turf and moss, and an outer layer of snow, protected from the in- sidious attacks of a benumbing and blighting wind by a long subterranean tunnel, which pre- vents the intrusion of cold draughts of air, forms one of the most ingenious, and certainly one of the most successful, contrivances which the Es- kimos, with their limited resources, could possibly have adopted. The plan of the tunnel is really of very skilful design. Its opening is always directed to the southward, and this for two good reasons ; — first, that the noontide rays of the spring and autumn sun may cheer it with their genial light and warmth ; and second, that the winds of the north, east, and west, which are remarkable for their severity, may pass by without entering. They are unwelcome guests, whose presence may not be ESKIMO MEMORIALS. 71 invited. In some cases the bottom of the tunnel is on a level with the floor of the hut; in others it is so much lower that its roof coincides with the floor of the former. On this plan — which, though unintentionally, is thoroughly scientific — the cold air which creeps along the tunnel being denser than the warm air in the hut, can have no tendency to rise into it unless a circulation were set in motion by allowing the escape of the warm air from the roof or windows. In the curious little hamlet we are describing, six of the huts were arranged in a row, and very near together, on the southern slope of the plain, with openings or tunnels pointing to the south- ward. Of these the easternmost was situated at the corner of the bank, where it began to incline to the northward ; near it were three others, on the eastern edge, with their entrances obliquely directed towards the south or south-east. Adjoining the huts numerous excavations might be seen in the ground, which, apparently, had been employed for stores and similar purposes. There were also several tumuli, or burial- mounds, and a considerable number of gi-aves was scattered about the vicinity. Many of these were immediately in the rear of the huts, others among * 72 ESKIMO HABITS. them or in front, and two or three were found in the floors of some of the older huts, which had probably become the resting-places of the last of the occupants. In general these graves contained human bones. A very perfect skull was taken out of one of them, which, from its character, was supposed to have belonged to a female of about twenty years of age. Many, in addition to their human relics, contained fragments of the imple- ments used by the natives in their fishing and hunting. Among these were found a few pieces of " unicorn's horn" (the tooth of the narwhal), some branches of reindeer's horn, and several bits of wood that had been rudely wrought. ** These deposits of useful utensils," says Scoresby, " were additional characteristics of the habits of the Eskimos. This people, it is well known, in their natural and totally uncultivated state, are of opinion tha* "^hey shall require their implements for their maintenance after death. The highest virtue, in the opinion of many Es- kimos, consisting in a dexterous, successful, and industrious application to the business of hunting, fishing, and the like, — and their enjoyments, in connection with the support of life, being derived from the produce of their sealing and hunting, — RKMAINS OF THE DEAD. 73 they rest their title to happiuess in another state of existence to the greatness of their exploits, or to the hardships they may have suffered ; and they make the enjoyments of their Elysium to consist in a perpetual day of endless summer, and, above all, in an ' exuberance of fowls, fishes, reindeer, and their beloved seals,' which are to be caught without toil. Some, indeed, believe that these animals will be provided and cooked for them without any care of their own; but others, less sanguine in their expectations, consider that they shall require their spears and darts to kill them (which are therefore buried along with them when they die), but that they will be in such abundance as to render the capture of them rather an occupation of pleasure than of labour." In some of the graves examined, pieces of seal- skin or deer-skin were found among the bones; these were evidently the remains of the dresses in which the bodies had been interred. The graves were all dug in the earth, not raised above the surface as is the custom in rocky districts ; and they were covered over with slabs of slate or sandstone, and pieces of wood or bone laid trans- versely; in not a few the bottom was lined with clay-slates. ' -^ 74 GLACIERS AND ICEBEIIOS. 'i\ The height of the coast, in a noble inlet which was named Scoresby's Sound, in honour of the navigator's father, was estimated at 2600 feet. It would seem that this coast is a kind of manu- factory of icebergs. Every valley and ravine, from Cape Brewster for many leagues to the westward, is filled with ice. In some places thin ice forms enormous beds on the top of the coast- range of hills, extending in an unbroken surface for many miles together. From these vast glaciers are rent or disrupted the numerous float- ing bergs with which the sea is strew 1 to an extent of thii-ty or forty miles. The whole of them — though some rise to an altitude of 150 feet or more above the waves, and, beneath, are probably 1000 feet in diameter, and nearly a mile in circumference — are simply dismemberments of the rivers of ice which roll with slow but continu- ous motion from the ravines among the mountains down to the ocean's edge. In the course of his voyage northward, Scoresby fell in with what we must caU a shoal of ice- bergs. Throughout an area of almost twenty miles in diameter the sea was thickly sprinkled with these vast floating bodies. At one time Scoresby counted 500 from the mast-head, and OLACIERS AND ICEBERGS. 75 out of the 500 scarcely one was less than a ship's hull in size. About one-fifth appeared to reach the height of a ship's main-mast. Some were fully twice that height, or 200 feet above the surface of the sea, and several hundreds of yards in extent. Their forms were infinitely various, so were their tints; but the prevalent appearance was that of cliffs or islands of chalk majestically borne onward by the rolling tide. Many of them were loaded with masses of rock of great thick- ness, weighing, it was computed, from 50,000 to 100,000 tons. The weight of some of the icebergs is enormous. Take, for instance, a mass of 1500 feet square and 100 feet above the level of the sea. Owing to its regularity of shape it is not difficult to cal- culate its weight. Had its upper surface been exactly horizontal, the bulk of ice below, as com- pared with that above the level of the water, would have been in the proportion of 8*2 to 1 ; but allowing for inequalities, we may compute it as 7 to 1, — that is, the ice sunk below was seven times greater than the ice floating above the sur- face of the water. Hence, its weight must have been equal to that of a mass of sea-water of 1500 feet square and 700 feet thick, being the 1 ; I' V 76 GLACIERS AND ICEJJKHOS. >■■ quantity that it displaced. The solid contents of this displacement, namely, 1,575,000,000 cubic feet divided l)y 35, which is the number of cubic feet of water of the Greenland Sea in a ton weight, gives the result of Forty-five millions of tons for the weight of the iceberi:. Can the reader follow this calculation? If not, let him reflect that the weight of the largest man- of-war is about 6000 tons, and that it would take 7500 such men-of-war to make an iceberg of this astonishing magnitude ! Our explorer could not carry on his persever- ing investigations without occasionally incurring personal danger. Thus, on the 10th of August he landed under Vandyke Cliffs, near Cape Moor- som, on a steep slope formed by the debris of the rocks above. After an unsuccessful attempt to ascend, he entered upon a slope included between two precipitous rocks, and with considerable labour accomplished about five hundred feet ; above which, the cliff sheering upward almost perpendicularly, further progress was impossible in that direction. By skirting the bottom of another precipice beneath him, where the angle CLIMKING A rUi:CIPICE. ( t was rlangerously sharp, and tlie surface composed entirely of loose, sharp stones, he gained the bottom of a chasm between two prodigious pin- nacles, and then made a third attempt to ascend. However, the enterprise soon assumed so dangerous an aspect that he would gladly have abandoned it, had it been possible. But it was almost as diffi- cult to retrace his steps as to press forward. The rocks of the two pinnacles which flanked the chasm, distant about twenty feet from each other, were vertical on both sides. One of these rocks, which was so decomposed and broken as not to atford a firm holdfast, Scoresby was forced to grasp with his left hand, while he thrust his right among the loose stones, and made a step in advance ; frequently no inconsiderable deliberation was re- quired before a second step could be essayed. A slip of the foot would have been death, for the bottom of the chasm opened on a precipice four hundred to five hundred feet deep, over which, whenever the courageous explorer moved, a large shower of the loose stones around him fell with a terrible and ominous din. On the summit he had hoped to find some small tract of level surface, whose flora would repay him, at least in part, for the hazardous exploit into P 11^ T 78 A PERILOUS ADVENTURE. '■I which he had been betrayed by his thirst for knowledge. Great was his disappointment to discover a narrow ridge, — with the sea on either side, — a ridge narrower and sharper than the top of the highest pitched roof. Here, however, he rested for a few minutes, sitting astride on the ridge — a surging sea below ; and, above him, two tremendous perpendicular pinnacles, between two and three hundred feet in elevation. These actually vibrated with the force of the wind, and appeared altogether so shattered and unstable that it was a marvel they remained erect. From this dangerous position Scoresby made haste to retire, and happily succeeded in accomplishing the de- scent in safety. Yet another incident, to illustrate the perils attendant upon Arctic exploration. It was the 11th of August. Captain Scoresby being greatly fatigued by keeping the deck pearly all day, exposed to a fall of rain so heavy and incessant as to defy the usual defence of capes and wra})})ers, retired to bed about mid- night, leaving the ship in charge of the chief r ate. After enjoying a couple of hours' repose, the captain's attention was aroused by the cir- cumstance that the ship tacked twice in about ' ll SURROUNDED BY THE ICE. 79 five minutes. Alarmed at this significant proof of intricate navigation, he sprang from his couch, slipped on a wrapper, and hastened upon deck. He arrived at a critical moment ; the vessel was involved in a narrow channel or creek, with the ice rapidly closing in on every side. The width of the channel when he went below was fully two miles ; when he came on deck, it had be- come narrowed to some eight or nine hundred yards. Moreover, the position of the Baffin was specially unfavourable, for a large ice-floe to the eastward and a sheet of thin land-ice to the west- ward were drawing close together. In a very short time the width of open water was di- minished to one hundred and fifty yards. Every stitch of canvas was crowded on the ship which she could safely carry. Fortunately, her crew were experienced and steady, and her commander was a thorough seaman ; his well-conceived orders were instantly carrie J out ; the gale blew strongly, but top-gallant sails were set upon double-reefed topsails, and the Baffn was driven into the thinner ice, which she crashed and shivere.i be- fore her bows. Sometimes her course seomed to be arrested, and those on board felt the pro- foundest apprehension ; but eventually tho ice !'h ^mmm 80 A WHALING KXPKRIEN'CE. I! ■ -li i '! . Ill It, P yielded before her continuous pressure, and en- abled them to carry her into a broader and clearer channel. A " whaling " experience may also be recorded for the entertainment rf the reader. About four in the morning of the loth of August, the weather being calm and misty, word was passed round the decks that some animals of the whale tribe had been heard "blowing." It was feared, however, they were not the right species, the onysticetus or Greenland whale, but the " razor-back," or some other kind, for whoso capture they were not provided with the neces- sary apparatus. On sending a boat to ascertain the species, it was found, however, that their fears were agreeably disappointed, for the shout so welcome to the ear of a whale-fisher came ring- ing over the waters, — "A fall! — a fall!" Just at this moment, the mists rolled away, the sun filled the scene with its glorious radiance ; and the boat which had been sent out to observe was descried with its jack flying, as a token of being " faat to a fish." Misled by a whale which clashed past t])C ship as the other boats were lowered, and wJjich was supposed to be the "fast-fish," most of the Baffin's officers pursued it to such a Ik ft I HUNTING THE WHALES. 81 ' 1 i distance, that the real prize had nearly been aban- doned in their eager impetuosity for the chase. Only one boat out of six joined the "fast-boat," near which, in an exhausted condition, the " fast-fish " soon afterwards rose, and received a second har- poon. A reserve-boat, which, fortunately, had been kept on board, was despatched to the whalers' assistance ; and after a bold and energetic con- test had been maintained by the three boats for some time, the animal's capture was accomplished. The whale having been brought alongside, the ship was run a little off the land-floes, under a light westerly breeze, and moored to a piece of ice. As the weather was fair, and several whales were moving to and fro, the Baffin did not im- mediately secure her prize, bat despatched all the boats on a second campaign. The whales, this time, were rpther numerous, four or five being sometimes seen at a time. A whale usually re- mains at the surface, for breathing, about two minutes, seldom much longer ; it was a remark- able circumstance, therefore, that the leviathans we speak of remained regularly from five to fif- teen minutes at a time — some nearly half-an- hour — before they sank into the " hidden depths." (623) § 82 HUNTING THE WHALES. !i If' ^! During this long interval they were usually motionless, and offered the most favourable op- portunities for attacking them. Soon after the boats arrived on the scene, a couple of whales were harpooned ; but, to the great regret of the fishers, both escaped, owing to the breaking of the " fore-ganger," or that part of the rope immediately connected with the har- poon. In one case, the rope, which had been considerably exposed to bad weather, was faulty, and gave way ; but in the other, the line re- tained its perfect strength, and seemed to have been broken by being coiled round the tail of the fish, and subjected to a degree of tension it was unable to bear. In spite of all discouragements, however, the fishers continued their pursuit for several hours. At length, another whale was struck. No help being at hand, it was nearly two hours before a second harpoon was fastened ; and then, without the application of a single lance, the wounded animal dived to the bottom, and died. However, by dint of great energy and inexhaustible per- severance, its carcass was recovered. Just before this was accomplished, a fourth whale " hove in sight," — was pur3ued, surrounded, and capt\u*ed. ■^ A SAD CATASTUOPIIE. 83 On the evening of the 2Cth of August, the Baffin took leave of the coast of Greenland, and turned her prow homeward. The voyage was made without let or hindrance until the 11th of September, when Captain Scoresby was caught in a violent storm off the Butt of the Lewis. Dur- ing the gale a sad calamity occurred. Notwith- standing the heavy sea and the violence of the wind, the Baffin bore herself bravely. She was near a lee-shore, and the billows shook her ter- ribly ; but no water was shipped until towards evening, when a fatal wave at length struck her near the stern with tremendous force, and throw- ing up a vast mass of water, carried along with it, as it swept across the ^ V> 'ii WEST MAIN STREET '^fffssTiK.N.v. Msao ^/16)872-4S03 >\7 i/.. B o\ 90 SCORESBY ENTERS THE CHURCH. well known for his piety and scholarship ; and under his care he made such rapid progress, owing partly to his good natural abilities, and partly to his indefatigable perseverance, that, previous to ordination, he passed the usual examination most respectably ; and, as we shall see, his college, — for, in 1823, he entered himself at Queen's College, Cambridge, — thought him not unworthy of the honour of D.D. Scoresby's success in mastering the classics at the age of thirty-three is a remark- able proof of what may be accomplished by an industrious man, when supported by a noble and lofty enthusiasm. We find little to record in the next three years ot his useful and laborious life. He was ordained on the 10th of July 1825 by the then Archbishop of York, and he soon afterwards commenced his ministerial work at Bessingby, where he proved himself an effective preacher in the pulpit, and an anxious and diligent pastor in the paiish. To- wards the close of 1826 his Liverpool friends communicated to him a scheme which they had devised for the establishment of a floating church for the benefit of the numerous sailors frequenting that busy port, and wished him to undertake its charge. In January of the following year he was SCORESBY AS A PREACHER. 91 unanimously elected to the chaplaincy, and, with the sanction of the bishop of the diocese, accepted it. It was a post, we need hardly say, for which he was eminently fitted by his special acquaint- ance with the ways of thought and the characters of seamen, who are a class apart, and not easily understood by the purely civilian mind. The Mariners' Church, as it was called, con- sisted of a ship-of-war, appropriately fitted up, and capable of accommodating about one thousand persons. Here his ministrations appear to have been attended with the most gratifying success. The work done in Christ's name and for Chkist's sake is ever blessed by Christ ! We have said that Mr. Scoresby brought to his new career some special qualifications ; and, in particular, in preaching to his congregation, he succeeded in arresting their attention and awakening their interest by the employment of appropriate nautical illustrations familiar both to them and to himself Here is an example : — " You are all acquainted with the compass, and most of you, it is presumed, know something of its construction ; every one who has been at sea must be aware of its usefulness. It is your guide i 5|; !■ ! 92 (QUOTATIONS FROM SEllMONS. and means of safety and prosperity. Now, what the compass is to the sailor, the Spirit of Christ (which, entering the heart, produces the new birth) is to the believing Christian. The former guides through the trackless deep, when neither sun nor stars are visible, and enables you to reach the port to which you are bound ; the latter guides through the mazes, darkness, and manifold perils of this mortal life, to the haven of eternal bliss. But consider what the compass would be without being touched. It might have all the apparatus and requisites of a compass, — it might resemble other compasses so much as to present no difference in its external appearance whatever, and yet, for any purpose of navigation, it would be entirely useless. And such precisely is the natural man, before his heart is touched by the Spirit. He is a soul without divine life, — a compass without magnetism. He may, indeed, exhibit all the out- ward appearances of the spiritual man ; he may sustain a moral character ; he may be diligent in religious duties ; he may be forward in good works, — ^yet if he have not the divine touch — the heaven-born love, or charity — ^he is nothing. As the untouched compass has no attraction to the pole — stands in any direction — is inactive, QUOTATIONS FROM SERMONS. 93 inanimate, useless — so the unregeneratc man has no attraction to Christ, the believer's Pole-star ; he is indifferent to heavenly influences ; more readily stands out of the right direction than in it ; and is, in short, sluggish, dead, and unprofit- able. As, therefore, the compass, however well made and beautifully finished, must be touched with the mysterious influence of the magnet before it can turn to the pole, so the heart must be touched with the secret influence of Christ's Spirit before it can turn to Christ." We cannot resist the temptation of quoting another of these happj'' illustrative passages ; for though originally addressed to seamen, they em- body truths which are applicable to all readers : — " Let me reason with you on the folly of delay- ing religion. Let me endeavour to impress you with the danger of rejecting now the salvation of the gospel. The approach of death may be com- pared to the stranding of a ship on a lee-shore, in which the men who escape represent the righte- ous, and those who are lost the impenitent. Let us amplify this figure for present edification. Suppose, now, you were all in a ship which had struck on a sand-bank at a distance from the shore to leeward. Imagine a frightful extent of ••'' 94 QUOTATIONS FROM SERMONS. roaring breakers between you and the land, and nothing but destruction staring you in the face. Suppose, whilst in this terrible condition, when all hope of escape was given up, that a life-boat should bravely push off and approach the strain- ing, parting wreck to which you clung. What joy would the sight of the boat inspire ! What hope and animation would be felt ! Imagine now the boat within hail ; and being as near as safety will permit, the commander cries out, ' Now is the proper time ; now is the moment for being saved !' Would any hesitate whether they should then jump in ? Would any answer, * Come again after a little while, and perhaps it will be smoother'? Would any one in his senses say, ' I cannot come now ; but I will try to-morrow * ? How strange, then, that we should be so wise for this life, and such fools as to the next ! Yet such is the sinner's folly who refuses the salva- tion that is offered him noiv, supposing he may have it to-morrow ! To-morrow ! Before to- morrow's dawn, hesitating sinner, thy poor, fragile, crazy hulk may be broken up, and thy ill-prepared spirit may have been called to meet its God." Mr. Scoresby held the chaplaincy of the Mari- ■Ml VICAR OF BRADFORD. 96 ners' Church for a period of five years. In the interval he married a second time (June 1828), and lost his venerated father (in 1829). In the spring of 1832 his wife's feeble health rendered a removal from Liverpool imperative, and he ac- cepted the proffered incumbency of Bedford Chapel, Exeter. In 1834 he received the degree of B.D., after passing the necessary examinations, from Queen's College, Cambridge. And in the same year he once more tasted the " cup of bitterness " in the premature death of his second son, Frede- rick, a youth of much promise and of decidedly Christian character. Three years later he suf- fered another blow, his only surviving son, Wil- liam, being suddenly stricken down by fever, just as he was preparing to enter with the happiest auspices upon a medical career. In 1839 Scoresby was honoured with the degree of D.D., and about the same time was ap- pointed to the influential and laborious position of Vicar of Bradford. It was a noble field for Christian enterprise, and Dr. Scoresby addressed himself to its cultivation with characteristic energy and courage. He found his parish completely disorganized, and the large manufacturing popu- lation of Bradford almost wholly estranged from I ■ \l oe RESIGNATION OP THE VICARAGE. tho National Church. These evils he set himself to remedy. He established schools for the young, and he opened churches for the old, increasing his staif of clerical assistants by tho appointment of five curates. The time was one of great social uneasiness, for the poor had suffered greatly from a succession of bad harvests, and an unusual slack- ness of trade. Wages had been greatly reduced ; want, sickness, misery abounded in every direc- tion. In these trying circumstances Dr. Scoresby found it no easy matter to do his duty; but he laboured steadfastly, and with a deep Christian love for the poorer members of his flock, whose confidence and sympathy he eventually succeeded in gaining. His unremitting exertions, however, completely prostrated him, and he was reduced to so enfeebled a condition that he was constrained, very reluctantly, to resign the vicarage in Sep- tember 1846. He was mainly induced to take this step by the failure of his sight, which could be checked only by a cessation from work. No better proof can be given of the success of his pastoral labours, and the high estimation in which he was held by his parishioners, than the fact that he was invited to revisit Bradford in 1847, for the purpose of receiving a splendid scoresby's pastoral labours. 97 testimonial in silver, purchased by public sub- scription. In the course of the presentation address the chairman alluded to Dr. Scoresby's exertions in the cause of education. Four schools, he said, had been built by the late vicar, at a cost of about £4000, and, with one exception, entirely on his own responsibility as to the funds. When Dr. Scoresby came to Bradford there was not a single child under daily education in connection with the parish church ; when he left, about fifteen hundred children were receiving daily in- struction, exclusive of some twelve hundred Sun- day scholars. In addition to the erection of these schools, Dr. Scoresby had also undertaken ^he entire pecuniary responsibility of carrying on all the day and some of the Sunday schools, rely- ing only on the children's pence, the annual col- lections, and, for two or three years, a small contribution by the National Society. Their expenses exceeded the sum of £4000. The town was also indebted to its late vicar for the estab- lishment of the Church Institution, for the expenses of which he had been for two or three years solely responsible. The subdivision of the parish had also been effected under his superintendence, new churches built, and an efficient body of (523) 7 « n 98 PASTOR AND FLOCK. 'Ill clergymeu organized to cany the glad tidings of the godpel into the crowded lanes and squalid alleys. We are told, and can well believe, that Dr. Scoresby was too much affected by the kindly words and earnest greetmgs of his friends to attempt any brilliant valedictory address. In a few simple, heart-felt words, he thanked them for their reception of him, and for their magnificent gift, and then took leave of them, " who sorrowed most of all for the words which he spako. that they should see his face no more." of lid )r. to a for jnt ed lat CHAPTEK V. LAST YEARS OF A USEFUL LIFE. IS wife, towards the end of August 1847, showing symptoms of restored health, Dr. Scoresby accepted an invitation to visit the United States, and set sail from Liver- pool on the 4th of October. Reaching Boston safely, he travelled overland to Canada, where he was cordially received by Lord Elgin, then Governor-General, and returning to the United States, spent a short time with the Bishop of New Je.dey, and afterwards with the Bishop of Pennsylvania. While sojourning with the latter, he received the unexpected and melancholy in- telligence of his wife's death, As soon as he had partly recovered from the shock, he resolved to return to England, where he arrived on the 11th of March 1848. During the voyage he made some valuable and interesting V il 100 VOYAGE TO AJIEHICA. P fl^ experiments on the height of the ocean-waves ; for his active mind was always seeking some new channel in which to expend its energies. These experiments proved a source of considerable amusement to his fellow-passengers, and were graphically and humorously recorded by one of them in a communication to Mr. Charles Dickens's journal, Household Words. One brisk March morning, in the year 1848, says the writer, the brave steam-ship Hihernia rolled about in the most intoxicated fashion on the broad Atlantic, in north latitude 51° and west longitude 38° 50', the wind blowing violently from the west-south-west. The scene was full of grandeur, and the ship rode the tumultuous waters like "a thing' of life ;" but few of the passengers were in a condition to appreciate the gi'andeur of the scene or the stately bearing of the ship. Everything was made tight on deck. Had any passenger left a toothpick on one of the seats, he would assuredly have found it lashed to a near railing. Kope was coiled round every im- aginable article, and water dripped from every spar. Now it seemed as though she were travers- ing a brilliant gallery, flanked on either side by walls of crystal water ; now she climbed one of A STRANGE PASRENQER. 101 these crested walls, and an abyss, daik and ter- rible as the famous Maelstrom, yawned to receive her. Violent as were the waves, and incessant the rolling of the ship, there was, however, a monster — "a monster in British form" — actually on deck. It was said of him that he was not braving the storm, but rather tempting it — tempting it, that is, to sweep him headlong into eternity. The cook hesitated not to express a strong opinion against the saneness of a man who, though he might, if he chose, be securely ensconced in the cabin out of harm's way, would and did remain upon deck in momentary danger of being blown overboard. " The cook**' iieory was not ill sup- ported by the subject of it ; for he was continu- ally placing himself in all manner of odd places and grotesque postures. Sometimes he scrambled up on the cuddy-roof ; then he rolled down again on the saloon deck ; now he got himself blown up on the paddle-box, — that was not high enough for him, for when the vessel sank into the trough of the sea, he stood on tip-toe, trying to look over the nearest wave. A consultation was held in the cuddy, and a resolution was unanimously passed that the amateur of wind and water I 1 102 MEASURING THE WAVES. (which burst over him every minute) was either an escaped lunatic or a college professor." It was unanimously resolved, we are told, that he was the latter, and thenceforth nobody was surprised at whatever he thought proper to do. As for the professor, he calmly continued his ob- servations. He took up his position on the cuddy-roof, which was exactly twenty-three feet three inches above the ship's line of flotation, and there watched the mighty mountains which buffeted the noble vessel, He was anxious to ascertain their height, but found the crests rose so far above the horizon from the point where he was standing, that, unless he could gain a higher post of observation, it would be impossible to arrive at any just results. He had ascertained, however, as a fact beyond doubt, that the majority of these rolling masses of water attained a height of considerably more than twenty-four feet, measuring from the trough of the sea to the crests of the waves. But the professor was not satisfied with this negative proof, and in the pur- suit of his interesting inquiry, was not at all dis- posed to be baffled. It is impossible to know, says the chronicler, what may have been the secret thoughts of the MEASURING THE WAVES. 103 man at the wheel when the valiant observer signified his intention of mounting from the cuddy- roof to the larboard paddle-box. Now he might be seen rolling to and fro with the motion of the ship ; at one moment clinging to a chain-box, at another flinging himself into the arms of the second mate. Now he becomes invisible in a cloud of spray, and now his tall spare form is seen supported by the rails which connect the two paddle-boxes. The storm rages without, but within the mind of the supposed professor all is calm, and he is intent upon the solution of a mathematical problem. He knows he is elevated twenty-four feet nine inches above the floating-line of the ship, and allowing five feet six inches as the height of his eye, he perceives that he has acquired a total elevation of thirty feet three inches. Now he pauses until the vessel subsides fairly for a few minutes into the trough of the sea — that is, the hollow between two billows — in an equable and upright position, while the nearest approaching wave reached its greatest altitude. Then he finds that at least one half of the wave intercepts by a considerable elevation his view of the horizon. He asserts that he frequently observes long ranges j : 104 THE ATLANTIC BILLOWS. I' extending a hundred yards on either side or on both sides of the ship, and that these mount to such a height as to form an angle of two or three degrees when the crest of the wave is fully one hundred yards off. This distance adds about thirteen feet to the level of the eye. Such an immense elevation occurs only, however, in about every sixth wave. Now and then, when the course of a mighty billow, as it thunders from afar, is intercepted by another liquid giant, and they clash together, like AchiUes and Hector, their shivering crests shoot up- wards fully ten or fifteen feet higher — the height, let us say, of about half that of the London Monu- ment — and then come down in a tremendous deluge on the labouring vessel. The professor is literally inundated, but he bravely keeps his post, until he has satisfactorily proved, by accurate observation, that the average wave which passes the vessel is fully equal to the height of his eye, or thirty feet three inches ; and that the mean highest waves, not including the Hectors and Achilleses, rise about forty-three feet above the level of the hollow occupied at the moment by the ship. Having collected all the data he requires, our observer, half pickled by the salt water, and ( i A VIOLENT HURRICANE. 105 looking very cold and miserable, descends to the cabin, where, throughout the dinner-hour, he keeps up an animated conversation with the captain — the only person on board, apparently, who takes any interest in his scientific investiga- tions ; for we are told that the ladies, one and all, vow the professor is a monster, only doing "all this stuff" in mockery of their sufferings, and the male passengers seem to be too much absorbed in their own private cares to pay the slightest attention to a problem in science. As night draws in, the wind increases to a hurricane, and the ship quivers and shakes like a frightened child at witnessing the awful battle of the elements. Darkness comes down upon the vexed Atlantic, and the wild battle of the waters is hidden for a while. Towards morning, after a storm of thirty hours' duration, the weather grows fairer. The pro- fessor hastens upon deck. The waves have visibly decreased in height, and again he resumes his old position on the cuddy-roof. The waves have decreased in height, it is true, and yet ten of them in succession, as they surge past the ship, rise above the apparent horizon ; that is, they must measure more than twenty-three, and pro- 106 SPEED OF TUE WAVES. ■ i bably as much as twenty-six feet from hollow to summit, from base to ridge. Gaining the larboard paddle-box, the professor observes that occasion- ally four or five successive waves mount above the horizon, and hence are thirty feet in height ; and he notices too that they run no longer in continu- ous ridges, like a range of green hills, but assume more of the form of moderately elongated cones. Having thus far satisfied himself as to the height of Atlantic waves in a great gale of wind,* our hero proceeds to inquire into minuter details. His next object is to measure the time occupied by the regular waves in overtaking the ship, their width from crest to crest, and their rate of speed. First he ascertains the speed of the ship : she is going at the rate of nine knots an hour. Next he notes her course in reference to the direction of the waves : she is steering east, while the waves come from the west-north-west. Consequently they pass under the good ship Hihernia at a con- siderable angle. Observe, the length of the vessel is 220 feet. With these facts in his mind, the professor proceeds to count the seconds occupied by the * Scoresby's observations do not apply to the highest known waves, such as occur during a cyclone in the Pacific, but to those of a rough Atlantic fiea. INTERESTING CALCULATIONS. 107 crest of a wave in travelling from stem to stem : one, two, three, four, five, six. Now ho calcu- lates the time between the moment when one crest strikes the stem of the vessel and the next touches it : result, sixteen seconds and a fraction. Thus he obtains at once the width between crest and crest ; for as the crest travels two hundred and twenty feet (= length of vessel) in six seconds, and as sixteen seconds elapse before the next crest touches the stem, any schoolboy will see that the actual length of the wave must be nearly three times that of the ship, or, in plain figures, 605 feet from crest to crest. But then it falls to be considered that the oblique course of the ship necessarily lengthens her line over the waves ; thus : — Wave. Wave Wave., Direct course. Wave. Oblique course. The professor estimates the elongation at forty- six feet ; deduct this from six hundred and five, ~^d you have five hundred and fifty-nine feet as the probable average distance between crest and crest. f 108 RATE OF PROGRESS OF ATLANTIC BILLOWS. Though satisfied so far with the result of his experiment, the professor, "still balancing himself on his giddy height, to the wonder and amuse- ment of the sailors," is now anxious to compute the actual velocity of the waves. This would seem very easy. My young reader at once ex- claims. Why, the wave-crest travelled two hundred and twenty feet in six seconds ; divide 220 by G (220-^6), and you will have the rate per second. Not quite so fast, if you please. You forget, dear reader, that the ship travels u,t the same time as the wave, and at the rate of about nine geographical miles per hour, or 15.2 feet per second. Now add this rate to your former cal- culation, and you will find that the actual distance traversed by the wave in 16.5 seconds will be 790. 5 feet, being at the rate per hour of 32. 67 Eng- lish miles — the pace of an ordinary railway train. I may tell you that this estimate was after- wards compared with calculations made from totally different data by Mr. Scott Russell, and found to be quite accurate. You may therefore realize for yourself the conception of Atlantic waves, thirty feet high, sweeping after one an- other at the rate of more than half a mile per minute ! f SCORESBY S OBSEUVATIONS. 109 Armed with these interesting facts, the pro- fessor descended from the larboard paddle-box of the Hibernia. But he had also made some ob- servations on the forms of waves. When the wind blows steadily from one point, they are generally regular ; when it is high, and comes in " fitful gusts," and shifts from point to point, the sea is broken up, and the waves assume a more conical shape, and are covered with foamy fantas- tical crests. While the sea ran high, the pro- fessor observed now and then a ridge of waves stretching from about a quarter to a third of a mile in length, and forming, as it were, a dark- green liquid rampart. Sometimes this ridge was straight, and sometimes bent like a crescent, with the central mass of water higher than the rest, and, not unfrequently, with two or three semi- elliptical mounds in diminishing series on either side of the culminating peak. "When the wind had subsided," says our au- thority, " a few of the bolder passengers crawled upon deck in the oddest imaginable costumes. They had not much to encounter, for about a third part of the greater undulations averaged only twenty-four feet, from crest to hollow, in no A WELL-KNOWN NAME. I) :•!! height. These waves could be seen and selected from the pigmy waves about them, at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the ship. "The professor had been very unpopular on board while the stormy weather lasted, and the ladies had vowed that he was a sarcastic creature, who would have his little joke on the greatest calamities of life ; but as the waves decreased in bulk, and the wind lulled, and the sun shone, and the men took off their oil-skin coats, and the cabin-windows were opened, the frowns of the fair voyagers wore off. Perfect good-will was general before the ship sighted Liverpool ; and even the cook, as he prepared the last dinner for the passengers, was heard to declare (in confidence to one of the stokers) that, after all, there might be something worth knowing in the professor's observations. "When the professor landed at Liverpool, he would, on no account, suffer the carpet-bag con- taining his calculations to be taken out of his sight. Several inquisitive persons, however, made the best use of their own eyes to ascertain the name of the extraordinary observer, and found it to be legibly inscribed with the well- known name of Scoresby." J 1 ' I scoresby's third marriage. Ill That the reader may easily bear in mind Dr. Scoresby's calculations, we place them before him in a clear and distinct form. He ascertained, as the result of his investiffa- tions, that the highest waves of the Atlantic average in — Altitude 43 feet. Mean distance between each wave 559 feet. Width from crest to crest 605 feet. Interval of time between each wave 16 seconds. Velocity of each wave per hour 32i miles. In 1849, the Doctor, who stood greatly in need of a home-companion and domestic sym- pathizer, married for the third time, and was united to Georgiana, youngest daughter of Wil- liam Ker, Esq., of Gateshaw, Roxburghshire, and The Castle, Torquay. Immediately afterwards he erected a handsome villa at Torquay, that de lightful watering-place on the balmy south coast of Devon, where he spent the remainder of his useful life, devoting himself to fresh and original experiments in magnetism. He also took charge of the Sunday afternoon service at Upton, the parish church of Torquay, and in other ways did his best to assist in the diffusion of knowledge and the advancement of truth. If each of us followed his example, and 112 A VOYAGE TO AUSTRALIA. employed our leisure in promoting the happiness and enlightenment of our fellow-creatures, how rapidly would the condition of the world im- prove ! And we set Dr. Scoresby before our readers as a model, because he was not so much a great man as a good man, and one whom it is not difficult to imitate. The secret of his success is to be found in the fact that he made the best possible use of such talents as God had gifted him with, and wasted not an hour. Inaction was im- possible to that vigorous, persevering, courageous intellect. In pursuance of the magnetical investigations to which we have referred, and in order to work out his theory of magnetic development. Dr. Scoresby, in 1855, at the advanced age of sixty- five, resolved to undertake a voyage to Australia! This was eminently an enterprise worthy of the man, for its principal object was to devise some means by which the excessive and dangerous variations of the compass in iron ships might be prevented or neutralized. And as iron was rapidly displacing wood as a material for ship-building, Dr. Scoresby's object was one of national im- portance. This was so generally felt, that, when Dr IIOMEWAIID BOUND. 113 Scorcslty's dccermination became known, the Liverpool and Australian Steam Navigation Com- pany offered him a free passage, outward and homeward, on board their fine new iron screw- steamer of 3000 tons, the Royal Charter; and all extra expenses, including those of Mrs. Scoresby, who had resolved to accompany her husband, were defrayed by a subscription raised among the Liverpool merchant-princes. It was felt that Dr. Scoresby, in undertaking what was really a public service, ought not to do so at his private cost. The instruments necessary for his contemplated investigations were supplied by the Admiralty ; and Dr. and Mrs. Scoresby embarked on Thursday, January 17, 1856, under the most encouraging auspices. The Royal Charter put into Plymouth, to make some necessary repairs, on the 2Gth of January, and sailed from that port on the 16 th of Feb- ruary. She arrived at Melbourne in the un- precedentedly short period of fifty-nine days. After a brief but pleasant sojourn in the Au- stralian colonies, including a visit to the gold- diggings, Dr. Scoresby sailed from Melbourne, on his homeward voyage, on the 25 th of May, and arrived in the Mersey on the 13 th of August. f523^ g 114 A TERRIBLE TEMPEST. On the outward voyage the Royal Charter ex- perienced a terrible tempest, of which Dr. Scores- by, in his " Journal," has furnislied a very graphic description. He says that at ten A.M., on the day of the storm (April Gth), the scene was awfully sublime. About an hour afterwards, it was in its highest condition of awful magnificence. " The continu- ance of the wind for several hours steadily nt west (the direction of a previously existing swell), produced waves of the most formidable magnitude ; whilst the sea, from its commence- ment at north, and a former sea from the south- westward, threw up the perplexed waters into the most strangely tumultuous peaks and crests, and other forms of waves. The sea was to me a new phenomenon. Even in the terrific and de- vastating hurricanes of which I had so often read descriptions, the sea had rarely time to gain the enormous height it now had with us — a height frequently of forty feet — regular waves rolling in the direction of the wind, and incomparably higher peaks and crests produced by crossing waves. Here, too, every feature of the tempest was set forth in grandest and most awful mag- nitude and sublimity. The fearful force and TlIK STORM-TOSSED OCEAN. .u li grandeur of the waves — the fierce howling of tlio storm — the novel and majestic magnitude of the crests, and peaks, and broken summits — the peril to ship and life in the event of an accident to the helm in .scudding — the glorious action, as I may call it, of the ship under these tremendous dis- turbances — and the drift sprays, confounding sight, as an atmospheric haze — gave the deepest interest to this memorable scene ! These fea- tures of grandeur were made more impressive by not infrequent gleams of bright sunshine pene- trating amid the broad cumulus-like masses of cloud which drifted across the upper sky, and throwing beams far from cheerful into the midst of the exciting scene — an incongi'uous glare of heavenly light which threw the rest of the pic- ture into more striking contrast — and which, on the coming over us of the rain, or snow-shower of the fiercer squalls, painted the dark threaten- ing astern with more ominous blackness." The spectacle on board the Royal Charter, though not so grand and awful as the scene with- out, was one of the deepest interest. No anxiety was felt about the security of the sails and spars of this admiiably rigged ship ; but the safety of a ship, in the hour of the tempest, depends on 116 THE MEN AT THE HELM. M^i her steering, and any failure in the apparatus, i^ear, or management of her helm, would have been disastrous. Every ordinary precaution Lad indeed been taken to guard against the breaking of the wheel ropes, — which in a former part of the voyage had all but happened, — men being stationed at hand on the poop, and relieving tackles placed in the most advantageous position for being at- tached to the tiller in case of necessity ; but still the uncertainty of putting into effect this appliance in time to prevent the ship broaching-to, left a possible risk, which no reflecting mind could over- look or fail to be impressed with. Hence at and around the helm all was watch- fulness and activity. There you might see four men of the best class of seamen, supported by others on either side of the deck, superintended and sometimes vigorously assisted by the hand of a principal officer, keeping the wheel in con- tinuous play as they endeavoured to counteract any side way tendency of the ship's head, or to anticipate the probable swing from previous movements of the wheel or the impulses of rolling seas. Every man was a typo of energetic, ex- perienced, patient manhood. In his face you could read that he felt the importance of his trust : i* A PICTURESQUE SCENE. 117 i. I I' that he knew that, in the management of the wheel, he held, under Providence, the destinies of many lives and the fate of a gallant vesseL There, a few paces forward of the helm, stood the captain, his figure and features characteristic in expression of an intelligent perception of his re- sponsibilities, and yet of a firm confidence in the experience gained in many voyages on many seas. "Were I a painter," exclaims Dr. Scoresby, " there is no scene which, since my abandonment of Arctic adventure, has come under my personal observation which I should more earnestly attempt to place on canvas than the poop-deck of the Royal Charter during the height of the hurricane. First, in the after-part of the ship, looking up- ward, we should have the mizzen-mast denuded of all sail, with the cordage swelling under the influ- ence of the wind ; then the ship herself cast into an oblique heel towards the i:ort side, the stem raised high by a mountain-like wave; then the living pictures at the helm, — the attending officer and the directing captain standing sideways in the foreground of all ; then, externally, the as- sailing mountain-like wave following close on the starboard qiTartci, and giving the direction and angle to the ship's inclined position, yet threaten- 118 SCORESBY S SERIOUS ILLNESS. in^', as many such waves do, to overwhelm the ship in mightiness of waters; then the atmospheric part of the picture — the mistiness of the storm- drift, the sun throwing a lurid glare through an aperture in the dense masses of cloud flying above, eliciting in the sea-spray of some immediate breaking crest a striking and brilliant segment of a prismatic arch ; and, finally, bej^ond this, astern, or on the left hand of the picture above, an ap- proacning squall-shower, thrown by the contrast of the penetrating sunbeams into the aspect of consummate threatening and blackness ! " On his return to England, it became painfully evident to his friends that the Doctor's health, which for some years had been delicate, was greatly injured by his arduous exertions. Yet he would not, could not rest. Visiting Edinburgh in November, he delivered a valuable and enter- taining course of lectures "On the Arctic Regions," to audiences numbering from three to four thou- sand on each occasion. Soon afterwards his illness assumed a more serious aspect, and it was found that he was suffering from valvular disease of the heart, producing occasional congestion of the lungs. Though aware of the dangerous and almost hope- THE DYING CHRISTIAN. 119 . -ii less character of his malady, he continued to exhibit the same Christian calmness and com- posure, and his interest in his favourite studies showed no signs of abatement. Travelling southward to Torquay, the milder and more genial climate afforded him sensible relief for several weeks; but early in 1857 his disease returned with increased severity, occasion- ing paroxysms of agony which he bore with heroic resignation. About the middle of March his medical advisers confessed that his recovery was not to be expected. He suffered so much from difficulty of breathing that he was unable to lie down, but day and night lie rested in an easy- chair, supported by pillows, never uttering a word of complaint or impatience, but, with true and simple Christian faith, exclaiming, "Lord, thy will be done ! " " Oppressed with sickness," writes the c^Tgy- man who attended him in his last days, " and the most painful feeling of weakness, he was led, like the great apostle, to ' desire to depart and to be with Christ ; ' which, he was convinced, would bo ' far better' for him. He believed that though he died yet should he live, because his life was hid witli Christ in God ; and that when Christ, who mmmmmmmm |r 120 THE END OF ALL. was his life, should appear, then he should appear with him in glory." Peacefully and tenderly, without any apparent struggle, his spirit passed away early in the morning of the 21st of March. God grant that you, dear reader, leading a life as pure and useful, may also enjoy an end like his ! x ^ n