302 THE COOKS IN DIFFICULTY. 



cents of mine how to keep the furnace-lamp from 

 being blown out ; for we can use only lard for fuel, 

 and the smoke is so great that we cannot have the 

 cooking done inside. It seems to me that nothing 

 takes the wits out of a man so quickly as the cold. 

 The cooks had not sense enough left to inclose 

 themselves in a snow wall, and I had to teach them 

 how to keep up the proper proportion of lard and 

 rope-yarns in the lamp to prevent the flame from 

 smothering on the one hand, and from being whiffed 

 out on the other. We were more than two hours in 

 making a pot of coffee, and came in out of the pelt- 

 ing snow-drift with our furs all filled with it ; and 

 now it melts, and the clothing is getting damp, for we 

 do not change our dress when we crawl in between 

 our buffalo-skin sheets. 



April 8th. 



Could any thing be more aggravating ? The gale 

 holds on and keeps us close prisoners. My people 

 could no more live in it than in a fiery furnace. I 

 never saw any thing like it. Last night it fell warmer, 

 and snowed, which gave us encouragement ; but the 

 wind blew afterward more fiercely than ever, and hu- 

 man eye never beheld such sights. There was no- 

 where any thing else but flying snow. The sun's face 

 was blinded, and the hills and coast were hidden com- 

 pletely out of sight. Once in a while we can see the 

 ghost of an iceberg, but that is rarely. We tried to 

 brave it yesterday, and again to-day, for I wanted to 

 go down to Cape Hatherton to bring up our cargo 

 there. So we commenced tearing down the hut to 

 get at the sledge ; but ten minutes convinced me that 

 half the party would freeze outright if we undertook 

 to face the storm, and I sent the flock again under 



