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70 Letters written during the late Voyage of Discovery Transfixt with wonder on the frozen flood, The blaze of grandeur fired my youthful blood. Deep in th’ o’erwhehning maze of Nature’s laws, ’Midst her mysterious gloom I sought the cause : But vain the search ! inscrutable by man Thy works have been, O God ! since time began, And still shall be. Then let the thought expire, As late the splendors of Aurora’s fire To dark oblivion sank, in wasting flame, Like the dim shadows of departed fame ! ” It has been mentioned that our usual serenade consisted in the lugubrious, bowlings of the ravenous but famished wolves. Like other carnivorous animals they doubtless possess the faculty of devouring prodigious quantities of food when they can obtain it, and of enduring long privation when they cannot. Some of them approached within no great distance of the ships, as we could judge from their howl; but we seldom had a distinct view of them, nor hitherto, in spite of all our contrivances, have we been able to kill or catch one of them. One came over the ice, very close to the ships on the 25th. He was almost entirely white, the body long and lank, as indeed the wolf always seems to be on the con tinent of Europe, even in his best state. He stood higher on his legs, but much resembled the dogs of the Esquimaux and Green landers. His long bushy tail hung down almost to the ground ; when running his head was thrown out very low. A dog belong ing to the Griper, was for some time in the habit of disappearing from the ship about a certain time of tbe night, returning on board after some hours’ absence. He was more than once seen in company with a wolf, and being mostly of the same colour, may have been well received by that animal. At last he left the ship never more to return ; and whether he lost his way, or, which is more probable, that he was destroyed by some stranger wolf, his absence is still unexplained. A large and powerful black dog belonging to the Hecla, used also to frequent the society of his distant relations, the wolves, on shore. One morning he return ed home bit and torn about the throat; but about a mile from the ship, following the track in the snow, a considerable quantity of blood and hair was found, showing that the wolf had suffered still more than the dog. On the 12th of the month experiments were made on the con gelation of brandy, on the open deck of the Hecla. The mercury in the thermometer varied from —42° to —47°; the barometer from 30*24 to SO'l. A small quantity of strong brandy in 10 minutes began to congeal, and in half an hour it acquired the consistence, and somewhat of the appearance of honey. Re maining exposed on the deck for above an hour, it never became