1853.] DAILY ROUTINE. 251 



the piercing wind. But to the main protection between 

 the snow, ice, or cold gravel, and the body : the " fea- 

 thers" (Macadamized bits) being removed, a Mackintosh 

 cloth covers the flooring ; on this is spread a blanket of 

 buffalo skin, but this also was meagre ; frequent wet 

 caused the hair to take leave and enter the cookery, and 

 eventually, until indignantly turned out, it was reduced 

 nearly to spotted parchment ! 



It is almost needless to excite the sympathies of those 

 who can soundly sleep on the roughest gravel, or piles 

 of shot, and whose bony projections are calculated to 

 withstand any inconvenience ; but, pour moi-meme, I am 

 getting tender, and I feel the difference between true 

 and fictitious feathers ; and the cold, which at first chose 

 to make my dorsal column its immediate point of attack, 

 was very sensibly felt; but layers of non-conductors 

 eventually remedied this : habit too (like the eels) inures 

 one to suffering. Tent discipline continued . at a cer- 

 tain hour the cook is called : I never knew a cook call 

 himself. Why should they sleep more than any other 

 member ? seeing that they have the same time allowed, 

 and change daily : probably the last cook being the very 

 foremost to call his successor to a sense of his duty. 

 Our fires were candles, therefore soon lighted ; but the 

 cook had to procure his snow and thaw it, before he ob- 

 tained water. When this could be coaxed to boil, the 

 chocolate was put in, and the word passed, " Cocoa 

 ready." Heads emerged, pannikins produced (tin-pots 

 holding just measure one pint and more each person), 

 biscuit is served out, and breakfast soon despatched ; no 

 waiters to pay, no chambermaids. The luncheon-grog is 



