474 Chapter VIII. 



horrors. Yet we are living a life of luxury and plenty, 

 surrounded by all the comforts of civilisation. I think 

 we shall be better off this winter than last. 



"The firing apparatus in the galley is working 

 splendidly, and the cook himself is now of opinion that 

 it is an invention which approaches perfection. So we 

 shall burn nothing but coal-oil there now ; it warms the 

 place well, and a good deal of the heat comes up here 

 into the work-room, where I sometimes sit and perspire 

 until I have to take off one garment after another, 

 although the window is open and there are 30 odd 

 degrees of cold outside. I have calculated that the 

 petroleum which this enables us to keep for lighting 

 purposes only, will last at least 10 years, though we 

 burn it freely 300 days in the year. At present we are 

 not using petroleum lamps at the rate assumed in my 

 calculation, because we frequently have electric light ; 

 and then even here summer comes once a year, or, at 

 any rate, something which we must call summer. Even 

 allowing for accidents, such as the possibility of a tank 

 springing a leak and the oil running out, there is still 

 no reason whatever for being sparing of light, and every 

 man can have as much as he wants. What this means 

 can best be appreciated by one who, for a whole year, 

 has felt the stings of conscience every time he went 

 to work or read alone in his cabin, and burned a lamp 

 that was not absolutely necessary, because he could have 

 used the general one in the saloon. 



