20 CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 
Gray, that there is no advantage in health in abstainers on board whalers, while Dr. A. Envyall, who 
accompanied Nordenskiéld, condemns excess, but says he believes spirituous liquors to be of great 
use in small and moderate quantities. Further mention may be made to Professor Nordenskiéld 
and Lieutenant Palander, who in 1873 undertook a sledging journey from their winter quarters in 
Spitzbergen, in latitude 79° 53’ north, and were away sixty-six days. During the whole journey, 
there was no scurvy, though the party had no lime juice. The diet consisted of pemmican, biscuit, 
salt pork, butter, coffee in abundance, and a little spirits daily. All returned in excellent health. 
Comparison may be made between the Alert, of the Nares Expedition, aboard which scurvy 
prevailed notwithstanding the careful daily administration of lime juice, and H. M.S. Assistance, 
in 185051. In the Assistance there was beer brewed on board, while the Alert had no such advan- 
tage. No scurvy prevailed on board the former ship. Captain Markham, speaking of the preven- 
tion of scurvy in any future expedition wintering in high latitudes, says that the dietetic causes 
may be reduced to a minimum by varying the diet with condensed milk, butter, eggs, beer, and 
wine. He also observes in regard to the adequacy and completeness of outfit that former expedi- 
tions had the means of brewing beer on board, while the Nares Expedition had no such advantage. 
Markham moreover says that Captain Hall, of the Polaris, who died of apoplexy, was a 
teetotaler and was much annoyed at seeing others drink. 
Whatever conclusions may be deduced from the foregoing, it is evident that there is an abso- 
lute consensus of opinion both among executive and medical officers of late Arctic Expeditions in 
regard to the judicious use of alcoholic beverages. It only remains to add that personal experi- 
ence and observation convince that there is an indescribable something in the Arctic atmosphere 
that produces what is called the northern craving for drink, even among persons who care nothing 
for it in temperate latitudes. Being of abstemious habits, I would not for the world say anything 
to favor intemperance, but facts warrant in testifying to the undeniable good effects of whiskey 
when served out to the erew after unusual fatigue and exposure; and I know of no place, cireum- 
stance, or condition under which sueh beverages as beer and claret are more palatable or more 
valuable from a hygienie point of view than when taken at meals during an Arctic voyage. 
Ilicif traders, taking advantage of this northern craving for drink, have of late years been in 
the habit of supplying the most villainous compounds, in exchange for small quantities of which 
the improvident Eskimo gives his choicest furs. Some captured specimens of these prohibited 
articles, bearing the respective labels of Bay Rum, Jamaica Ginger, Pain Killer, and Florida Water, 
with a view to defrauding the revenue, proved on examination to be nothing but cheap alcohol of a 
highiy inflammable nature to which a little coloring matter had been added. Loath as IT am 
to give the least encouragement to intemperance, being rather an advocate of temperance, I 
cannot help thinking that it would be a step in the right direction, and one productive of 
good, if instead of the present prohibitory measures the fur companies were allowed to sell small 
quantities of beer and claret. In addition to their value as antiscorbutics, their use would be 
eminently better for the natives from a moral point of view than the present use of ‘ quass,” a vile 
native decoction made from sugar and flour, both of which articles the traders have a right to 
dispose of in unlimited quantities. 
To the alleged introduction of spirituous liquors is said to be due the famine and excessive 
mortality among the natives of Saint Lawrence Island, one thousand of whom it is estimated have 
died in the last three years. Several visits to this island revealed the fact that it is fast becoming 
depopulated. The first village at which we landed was entirely deserted ; at a second not a living 
being was to be seen, but in and around the houses were counted fifty-four dead bodies, all adults. 
Many laid unburied on the adjacent hills, while others had died in bed, where they still remained. 
A third village, which must have been a very old settlement, judging from the thousands of walrus 
skulls strewn inevery direction and from the character of the kitchen-middens, was also depopulated. 
It was a Golgotha in every sense of the word. A great many dead were found here, laid promis- 
cuously out of doors, and in one house we found sixteen bodies. Among these remains were those 
of several children, a fact which tended to remove previous suspicions of cannibalism on the part 
of the sufferers. At these villages was made a fine collection of Innuit crania and other ethnological 
curiosities for the Smithsonian Institution. Finally we visited at the northwest extremity of the 
island a settlement where lived several hundred Eskimo. They informed us that two hundred 
