where the wind had not allowed the snow to remain.  When viewed from the summit of the neighbouring hills, on one of those calm and clear days which not unfrequently occurred during the winter, the scene was such as to induce contemplations which had, perhaps, more of melancholy than of any other feeling.  Not an object was to be seen on which the eye could long rest with pleasure, unless when directed to the spot where our ships lay and where our little colony was planted.  The smoke which there issued from the several fires, affording a certain indication of the presence of man, gave a partial cheerfulness to this part of the prospect; and the sound of voices, which, during the cold weather, could be heard at a much greater distance than usual, served now and then to break the silence which reigned around us; a silence far different from that peaceable composure which characterizes the landscape of a cultivated country; it was the deathlike stillness of the most dreary desolation, and the total absence of animated existence.  Such, indeed, was the want of objects to afford relief to the eye or amusement to the mind, that a stone of more than usual size appearing above the snow in the direction in which we were going, immediately became a mark on which our eyes were unconsciously fixed, and towards which we mechanically advanced.

We had frequent occasion, in our walks on shore, to remark the deception which takes place in estimating the distance and magnitude of objects when viewed over an unvaried surface of snow.  It was not uncommon for us to direct our steps towards what we took for a large mass of stone at the distance of half a mile from us, but which we were able to take up in our hands after one minute’s walk.  This was more particularly the case when ascending the brow of a hill, nor did we find that the deception became less on account of the frequency with which we experienced its effects.

In the afternoon the men were usually occupied in drawing and knotting yarns, and in making points and gaskets; a never-failing resource where mere occupation is required, and which it was necessary to perform entirely on the lower deck, the yarns becoming so hard and brittle, when exposed on deck to the temperature of the atmosphere, as to be too stiff for working, and very easily broken.  I may in this place remark, that our lower rigging became extremely slack during the severity of the winter, and gradually tightened again as the spring returned:  effects the very reverse of those which we had anticipated, and which I can only account for by the extreme dryness of the atmosphere in the middle of winter, and the subsequent increase of moisture.