128 UNSOCIABILITY OF THE CREW. 



small floe, less than two hundred yards from the 

 larboard quarter. The site chosen had every 

 appearance of solidity, and yet, to my surprise, 

 I confess, after the sharp weather of the past 

 few days, they came to water on removing snow, 

 a foot or two from the surface. At first it was 

 thought to be fresh, but when they had dug 

 about five inches through ice, the sea-water 

 rushed up, thus proving how great is the pro- 

 tection afforded by a covering of six or eight 

 inches of snow. The ice formed on the fire hole* 

 in a single night but three days before was just 

 five inches thick. 



Meantime we were not unobservant of the 

 habits and dispositions of the crew, hastily ga- 

 thered together, and for the most part composed 

 of people who had never before been out of 

 a collier : some half dozen, indeed, had served 

 in Greenland vessels, but the laxity which is there 

 permitted, rendered them little better than the 

 former. A few men-of-wars-men who were also 

 on board, were worth the whole together. The 

 want of discipline, and attention to personal 

 comfort, were most conspicuous ; and though 

 the wholesome regulations practised in His 

 Majesty's service were most rigidly attended to 

 in the Terror, yet such was the unsociability, 



* Fire hole — hole for drawing water in the event of fire. 



