Pagina 441 di 483

By the quantity of provision which I had consumed, I should guess

that I had passed three weeks in this journey; and the continual

protraction of hope, returning back upon the heart, often wrung

bitter drops of despondency and grief from my eyes. Despair had

indeed almost secured her prey, and I should soon have sunk

beneath this misery. Once, after the poor animals that conveyed

me had with incredible toil gained the summit of a sloping ice

mountain, and one, sinking under his fatigue, died, I viewed the

expanse before me with anguish, when suddenly my eye caught a

dark speck upon the dusky plain. I strained my sight to discover

what it could be and uttered a wild cry of ecstasy when I

distinguished a sledge and the distorted proportions of a

well-known form within. Oh! With what a burning gush did hope

revisit my heart!