234 RETURN OF DEPOT SLEDGES. 



per vessel, hammered out of the solid, with six lips for 

 wicks, affording the facility of adding oil, or walrus, bear, 

 or bacon fat. These two light and simple articles are 

 available for any purpose. Our copper vessels have been 

 riveted and brazed, but the kitchen itself, the outer 

 casing of tinned iron, is already asunder ! How many 

 years have they been warranted to last ? Gone before 

 one season ! Very stringent orders will be given to pre- 

 serve their remains for future service. The test which 

 I would prescribe for all such articles, in copper (to be 

 tinned after), would be boiling oil : if they stood this they 

 might be received, not otherwise. 



Our appearance, short as our absence had been, 

 brought officers and crew out to help us : to that com- 

 fort we were anxious to reach, for our cruise had some- 

 what shaken me, and the constant talking of cold which 

 the men experienced, made me far from comfortable. 



March 29. Our anxiety for the return of our party 

 kept me very often on the hill, and today, turning my 

 telescope towards the outer points, where I intended to 

 place some beacons, I noticed dark objects in motion : 

 ducks they could not be, but, deceitful as the atmo- 

 sphere is on the ice, I was soon able to discover that they 

 were the heads of our sledge crews, rounding the spit 

 of ice off the outer island, when they all, strange to my 

 mind, pitched their tents on the spit. I was not long in 

 sweeping the island crest and discerning that this mo- 

 tion was connected with parties cairn-building ; and after 

 constructing two, they rejoined the tents and advanced. 

 Affording them time to make their march, I took the di- 

 rect path to cut them off, and joined them about two 



