342 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



rains, which will effectually prevent putrescence^ 

 on the outward passage ; and in Greenland, the 

 cold becomes a sufficient preservative, by freezing 

 them as hard as blocks of wood. Beef, mutton, pork 

 and fowls, (the latter neither plucked nor drawn,) 

 are constantly taken out from England, Shetland 

 or Orkney, and preserved in this way. When 

 used, the beef cannot be divided but by an axe or 

 a saw ; the latter instrument is generally preferred. 

 It is then put into cold water, from which it derives 

 heat by the formation of ice around it, and soon 

 thaws ; but if put into hot water, much of the 

 gravy is extracted, and the meat is injured with- 

 out being thawed more readily. If an attempt 

 be made to cook it before it is thawed, it may 

 be burnt on the outside, while the centre remains 

 raw, or actually in a frozen state. The moisture is 

 well preserved by freezing, a little from the surface 

 only evaporating, so that if cooked when three, four 

 or five months old, it will frequently appear as pro- 

 fuse of gravy as if it had been but recently killed. 

 But the most surprising action of the frost, on fresh 

 provision, is in preserving it a long time from pu- 

 trefaction, even after it is thawed and returns into 

 a warm climate * I have eaten unsalted mutton and 



* In the year 1808, a leg of mutton which was taken out 

 to Greenland in the ship Resolution, returned to Whitby un- 

 salted. It was then allowed to remain on board of the ship, 

 exposed to the sun during two remarkably hot days, when the 



