630 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



fourteen or sixteen inches in diameter. Some of this was badly- 

 molded but there were entire disks in nearly perfect condition 

 and the centers of even the moldy ones were good. Later when 

 we found a barrel of sugar it proved to be syrup, brown, with 

 more of a tang than is common now in sugar — a slight but agree- 

 able burnt taste. Evidently moisture enough to liquefy the sugar 

 had soaked in through the wood. By digging deep we were able 

 to get some undissolved sugar from the bottom. Both Noice and 

 Knight considered themselves expert in candy making and for a 

 day they made chocolate and chocolate candy by combining the 

 sugar and chocolate in various proportions. 



Barrels of potatoes and other dried vegetables were all spoiled. 

 The hard bread we did not find. It was probably in the bottom 

 tier, and the two lower tiers were so embedded in solid ice that 

 it was only a few barrels of the second tier we were able to get at. 

 One article of food was better than fresh, a small barrel of cur- 

 rants, damp enough so that practically they were soaked in wine. 

 On top where they were dry, the sugar had come out of them and 

 crystallized. They were the most delicious currants we ever tasted, 

 although originally they cannot have been of very good quality, 

 as we judged from their size and the fact that they were not very 

 clean. In fact, there was a good deal of gravel and sand mixed 

 with them, but they were the best thing we found and we carried 

 away forty pounds. 



Probably boots and clothing had been in some of the boxes 

 the fragments of which were lying around. It may have been 

 Bernier's men but more likely polar bears that had scattered these 

 on the ground around the house and in heaps inside it, so that it 

 was impossible to tell how they had been packed. But other con- 

 tainers had not been opened. We found a barrel of pea jackets, 

 inside of which was a package marked with the name "Lieutenant 

 Hamilton." The two or three jackets on the outside were decayed, 

 but some on the inside of the package were in perfect condition 

 and appeared to be made of better broadcloth than one can buy 

 nowadays. They were shining and silken and could well have 

 been worn by any dandy in a masquerade. 



There were barrels of underwear where, to our surprise, the 

 wool was in much better condition than the buttons. These were 

 large old-fashioned horn buttons and came to pieces, though the 

 thread still held and the garments were sound and clean. Jer- 

 seys and woolen stockings were also in good condition and a barrel 

 of mittens were perfect. The men at my suggestion took a pair 



