110 PUTREFACTION AT LOW TEMPERATUEES. 



places two typical skulls which he found tossed among 

 the rocks. The little, shrimps are also doing me good 

 service. They have prepared for me several skeletons 

 of all varieties of the animals which we have captured. 

 I first have the bulk of the flesh removed from the 

 bones, then, placing them in a net, they are lowered 

 into the fire-hole, and these lively little scavengers of 

 the sea immediately light within the net, in immense 

 swarms, and in a day or so I have a skeleton more 

 nicely cleaned than could be done by the most skillful 

 of human workmen. 



A party brought in to-day the carcass of a reindeer 

 which I mortally wounded yesterday, but was too 

 much fatigued to follow. They found its tracks, and, 

 after pursuing them for about a mile, they came upon 

 the animal lying in the snow, dead. It is now discov- 

 ered that putrefaction has rendered it unfit for use, a 

 circumstance which seems very singular with the tem- 

 perature at ten degrees below zero. A similar case is 

 mentioned by Dr. Kane as having occurred within his 

 own observation, and Jensen tells me that it is well 

 known that such an event is not uncommon at Uper- 

 navik. Indeed, when the Greenlanders capture a deer 

 they immediately eviscerate it. Puzzling as the phe- 

 nomenon appears at first sight, it seems to me, how- 

 ever, that it admits of ready explanation. The dead 

 animal is immediately frozen on the outside ; and 

 there being thus formed a layer of non-conducting 

 ice, as well as the pores being closed, the warmth of 

 the stomach is retained long enough for decomj)osition 

 to take place, and to generate gas which jDcrmeates 

 the tissues, and renders the flesh unfit for food ; and 

 this view of the case would seem to be confirmed by 

 the fact that decomposition occurs more readily in 



