70 BIRDS NOT DEEMED PROVISION. [AltC/mt, 



killed on service, what would be deemed a fair equivalent 

 as compared with meat, I directed a committee to report 

 thereon. The result was, that twelve of these birds (Alca 

 Alls) were not deemed more than adequate to one pound of 

 meat. This, then, reduces the question to one of numbers : 

 12 X 90== 1080 per diem would be required, to afford 

 the crews of the ship and tender with one meal. It is my 

 conviction that, taking a boat's crew, or even two, of our 

 picked men, fit to be trusted with sporting, this number 

 would not be taken in one day, and the opportunity 

 never probably to be repeated. But a much more im- 

 portant matter hinges on it. His vessels, we know from 

 the letters received, were fearfully hampered with coal 

 and provision. Where were they to stow some hun- 

 dreds of thousands ? Moreover it is too doubtful an ex- 

 periment to try upon a crew, situated as he was, to force 

 them, before necessity rendered it prudent, to take a sub- 

 stitute for provision. When birds are issued, it gene- 

 rally is considered in addition, to cheer them, to keep up 

 their spirits ; or when game, as deer, musk-ox, etc. can 

 be substituted entirely, or half with half rations, on the 

 march, and where they eat as much as they require, no 

 bad feeling would ensue. But the result in my own 

 ship was, that I did not consider it a safe experiment : it 

 was not necessary, and therefore the birds, when we had 

 killed sufficient, were served out as additional. 



August 1. Lat. 76 3' N., long. 70 46' W. Wea- 

 ther very fine ; light breeze ; the horizon clear, blue, and 

 well-defined, dotted merely here and there with small ice- 

 bergs ; the eye much relieved from the late painful glare 

 of the ice ; and the good ship, under canvas and in tow, 



