Chapter 59—Conclusion
Why linger over the perpetual sufferings of the survivors? They themselves could never recall to their memory a clear vision of what had happened in the week after their horrible discovery of the remains of the crew.
However, September 9th, by a miracle of energy, they reached Cape Horsburgh, at the end of North Devon.
They were dying of hunger; they had not eaten for forty-eight hours, and their last meal had been the flesh of their last Esquimaux dog. Bell could go no farther, and old Johnson felt ready to die.
They were on the shore of Baffin’s Bay, on the way to Europe. Three miles from land the waves were breaking on the edges of the ice-field.
They had to await the uncertain passage of a whaler, and how many days yet!
But Heaven took pity on them, for the
