prolonged fog; never in my life did I experience such feelings of awe
and alarm as during that weary week.

"But I must tell you of that another time. Your grandfather often used
to recall his emotions when travelling in that thick cloud. One day they
rested in the icy chamber they had dug for the night's resting-place,
and he said, 'That was indeed an oratory;' and fervently did we pray,
'Give us our daily bread,' and 'Lighten our darkness we beseech Thee, O
Lord.'

"The tears dropped fast when he thought of my anxiety on his account,
and of the probability that his usefulness was at an end, and that we
should meet no more on earth.

"At length he came to the resolution to retrace his steps, hoping to
make the scanty supply of biscuit which still remained hold out until
they could regain the spot where the Indians had encamped, and where
they had buried some venison. Of the three travellers, he suffered least
from snow-blindness, which he thought was owing to the fact that he had
kept a black gauze veil over his face at mid-day, and had resolutely
adhered to his purpose of not rubbing his eyes. He was, therefore, best
able to guide his companions. He thus describes the plan on which he
proceeded:--'Maurice, the Indian, would open his eyes now and then to
look at my compass;--we could not see for fog more than one hundred
yards; he would fix on some object as far as the eye could reach, and
then shut his eyes again, when I would lead him up to it. On reaching it
he would take another look, and we then started for the next point. It
was literally a case of the blind leading the blind.

"In this manner, by forced marches, we were enabled to reach, by seven