362 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



Besides what is included in the above list, " multegrot " 

 (preserved cloudberries), mixed with rum, was served out twice a 

 week from the 15th February to the 1st April. I would 

 willingly have had a larger quantity of this, according to 

 northern experience, excellent antidote to scurvy, but as the 

 cloudberry harvest completely failed in 1877, I could not, at any 

 price, procure for the Expedition the quantity that Avas required. 

 There was purchased in Finland instead, a large quantity of 

 cranberry-juice, which was regularly served out to the crew 

 and much liked by them. We carried with us besides a pair of 

 living swine, which were slaughtered for the Christmas festivities.^ 

 All the men at that time had an opportunity of eating fresh 

 pork twice a week, an invaluable interruption to the monotonous 

 preserved provisions, which in its proportion conduced, during 

 this festival, to which we inhabitants of the North are attached 

 by so many memories, to enliven and cheer us. 



COD FROM PITLEKAJ. 



Gttdus navaga, Krilreuter. 

 One-tliird of the natural size. 



The produce of hunting was confined during the course 

 of the winter to some ptarmigan and hares, and tlius did not 

 yield any contribution worth mentioning to the provisioning 

 of the vessel. On the other hand, I was able by barter with 

 the natives to procure fish in considerable abundance, so that at 

 certain seasons the quantity was sufficient to allow of fresh 

 fish being served out once a week. The kind of fish which was 

 principally obtained during the winter, a sort of cod with 

 greyish-green vertebra;, could however at first only be served 

 in the gun-room, because the crew, on account of the colour of 

 its bones, for a long time had an invincible dislike to it. 



On many of the ground-ices in the neighbourhood of the 

 vessel there were fresh-water collections of considerable depth 

 which indeed were already hard frozen on the surface, but long 



1 To carry auimals for slaughter on vessels duriug Polar expeditions 

 cannot be snfficiently recommended. Their flesh acts beneficially by 

 forming a change from the preserved provisions, which in course of time 

 become exceedingly disagreeable, and their care a not less important 

 interruption to the monotony of the winter life. 



