232 DEFECTIVE COOKING APPARATUS. [March, 



posed authority. Experientia docet, when men can be 

 made to understand it ; however, stone will, like metal, 

 take a lower temperature than snow, and will of course 

 abstract heat in a similar proportion. Each complained 

 of greater cold. I was silent; some smiled, few slept, 

 but all were very glad when chocolate was ready, and it 

 required no second call to rouse the slumberers. Dry 

 gravel, under summer sun, is however very warm, and 

 to be then preferred. 



Striking our tent, we now moved on for the ship, but 

 I soon found that such antics do not suit my present 

 constitution, and that severe spasms of my right leg 

 compelled me to use a compress. We reached the ship 

 at eleven A.M. on the 27th. 



On this short excursion we fortunately discovered the 

 inadequacy of our cooking-lamps either for stearine or 

 spirits-of-wine. Instead of brazing, they had been simply 

 soldered, and the first time the spirit was used, the sup- 

 ply-tube fell off, the spirit (the entire day's allowance) 

 was lost, and the tent endangered ; and yet these things 

 are put into the hands of the proverbially " careless and 

 inexperienced seamen !" What mechanic could dream of 

 burning stearine or alcohol in soldered vessels ! even the 

 nozzles of the tea-kettles were so secured ! Doubtless 

 the Government paid very handsomely for these ineffi- 

 cient claptraps, but our blacksmith had enough to do to 

 keep them in repair ; indeed we were lucky to obtain 

 him, for the steam department did not aid us in such 

 matters, beyond helping the blacksmith in tin-work and 

 at the bellows. These matters at first sight do not oc- 

 cur to the uninitiated, but they are pregnant with danger, 



