94 PREPARING FOR WINTER. 



being strong enough to bear a sledge, a channel had 

 to be kept open for the boats between the ship and 

 the shore. The duty of preparing the schooner for 

 our winter home devolved upon Mr. McCormick, with 

 the carpenter and such other assistance as he required. 

 After the sails had been unbent, the yards sent down, 

 and the topmasts housed, the upper deck was roofed 

 in, — making a house eight feet high at the ridge and 

 six and a half at the side. A coating of tarred paper 

 closed the cracks, and four windows let in the light 

 while it lasted, and ventilated our quarters. Between 

 decks there was much to do. The hold, after being 

 floored, scrubbed, and whitewashed, was converted 

 into a room for the crew ; the cook-stove was brought 

 down from the galley and placed in the centre of it 

 under the main hatch, in which hung our simple appa- 

 ratus for melting water from the snow or ice. This 

 was a funnel-shaped double cylinder of galvanized 

 iron connecting with the stove-pipe, and was called 

 the " snow melter." A constant stream poured from 

 it into a large cask, and we had always a supply of 

 the purest water, fully ample for every purpose. 



Into these quarters the crew moved on the first of 

 October, and the out-door work of preparation being 

 mainly completed, we entered then, with the cere- 

 mony of a holiday dinner, upon our winter life. And 

 the dinner was by no means to be despised. Our soup 

 was followed by an Upernavik salmon, and the table 

 groaned under a mammoth haunch of venison, which 

 was flanked by a ragout of rabbit and a venison 

 pasty. 



Indeed, we went into the winter with a most en- 

 couraging prospect for an abundant commissariat. 

 The carcasses of more than a dozen reindeer were 



