CLIMATE. — EFFECTS OF COLD. 341 



followed, and has seldom failed to produce its most 

 deleterious effects. And, 



That, on the contrary, the constant use of firesh 

 provisions, whether cured by cooking, freezing or 

 smoking, the occasional use of oleaginous substan- 

 ces, together with frequent exercise, a warm dwel- 

 ling and warm clothing, may be considered as a 

 plan of living which, if judiciously pursued, would 

 be the best calculated for the preservation of health, 

 and so probably effectual, that there would be little 

 danger of resisting disease throughout the severi- 

 ties of a Spitzbergen winter. 



Though the weather in the polar regions is very 

 damp and unpleasant in some of the summer 

 months, yet the very equable temperature which 

 prevails, renders this season of the year particular- 

 ly healthy. 



The antiseptical property of frost is rather re- 

 markable. Animal substances, requisite as food, 

 of all descriptions, (fish excepted), may be taken to 

 Greenland, and there preserved any length of time, 

 without being smoked, dried or salted. No prepara- 

 tion, indeed, of any kind, is necessary for their pre- 

 servation, nor is any other precaution requisite, ex- 

 cepting suspending them in the air when taken 

 on shipboard, shielding them a little from the sun 

 and wet, and immersing them occasionally in sea- 

 water, or throwing sea-water over them after heavy 



