Arctic miscellanies Author:John Ross Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. Winter Quarters, October, 1850. When one of the French writers of the day was told the story of St. Denis having walked after decapitation, with his h... more »ead under his arm, she wittily exclaimed: " Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute." So has it proved with the contributions to the ' Aurora.' The first steps taken, the rest were comparatively easy ; articles at first came in tardily, but their followers have poured in mea- suredly and constantly, and an abundant harvest has been supplied to feed the flame of thought. The Editor takes this opportunity of thanking his contributors for the zeal and readiness with which they have responded to his call. TO TILE EDITOR OF THE AURORA BOREALIS. I am an old bear, a reflective old bear, tooth- worn, rough-coated and fierce. Hearing that you are connected with one of the bright objects that solace us in these regions, I offer you these my (bear) bare thoughts to make known amongst my race. You are aware my deeds are too frequently seal-ed with blood wherever my ice-olated track is found. I prefer the 6ear-ded walrus to a tender turkey. The awful paw-city of our race had better be believed than felt. A young acquaintance, wandering over the floe, was attracted by some strange forms upon the ice. "Why not be contented with your seal?" thought I. On he went, when a noise like the splitting of an iceberg attracted my attention, and to my horror, he fell dead I " Your curiosity," thought I, " hath cost you dear." Feeling chilly at his fate, I walked towards a pool of water, where seal were sporting in numbers. A dashing friend of mine set off at a smart pace in the direction of what appeared to be a seal double the usual size. He had approachedwithin a short distance, when, startled, I beheld him limping away on three l...« less