618 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



out without stopping to do any skinning. These I knew would 

 make a good beginning towards the cure, by cheering them up as 

 well as by their curative properties. Tongues are tasteless raw 

 and exceptionally palatable cooked, so that we had them under- 

 done as a compromise — a little cooked for palatability, a little raw 

 that they might have curative power. After the meal we moved 

 inland and established what we called "Camp Hospital." 



The sick men were now put upon the following diet: In the 

 morning meat enough for a small meal was boiled and eaten slightly 

 underdone. There was enough broth left over to furnish something 

 to drink for the rest of the day, and any food eaten beyond the 

 boiled breakfast had to be eaten raw. It is one of the charac- 

 teristics of scurvy, as I have seen it, that the appetite is equal to 

 normal if not greater, and there is no serious digestive disturbance 

 until perhaps in the late stages when death is approaching. I could 

 rely on the appetite of my patients, therefore, to lead them to the 

 eating of plenty of raw meat. This was eaten by preference slightly 

 frozen, at a hardness analogous to that of hard ice cream. No meat, 

 as I have said, is ever tough if eaten raw. 



The only trouble about our diet now was lack of fat. The 

 marrow in the bones of these caribou was good and we let the 

 sick men have nearly all of it. Then, after putting the camp in 

 good shape and making sure that the invalids were able to take 

 care of themselves, Emiu and I set off inland looking for fatter 

 caribou. The ones we had killed were all calves, yearlings or 

 cows and we were going to try to find bulls. I knew now it was 

 only a matter of time till everything would be well, and was able 

 to dismiss worry and to really enjoy the next two weeks. 



We had more sunshine than is usual at this time of the year 

 and, although the bulls were not found, the older cows were fat 

 enough so that by reserving the marrow and suet for ourselves we 

 had enough and it was only the dogs that suffered. They had their 

 bellies full of lean meat continually and it was not so entirely lean 

 as to make them sick, as I have known it to be on the Canadian 

 and Alaskan mainland where caribou have been really lean. We 

 examined the land, took observations to get a good rate on our 

 watches, and altogether spent a pleasant and moderately profitable 

 time. We verified what Castel had noted the previous year on his 

 way south from Cape Isachsen, that Cape Isachsen does not lie on 

 a peninsula as represented on the maps, but on a small island, 

 for there is a strait running through between the Queen Louise 

 Fjord and Deer Bay of Isachsen. 



