184 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
enough of curiosity to cause an enquiry to be 
made, if any person in either ship had: cut the 
letter in question; when it was found, that one of 
the men belonging to the Griper, who was of the 
party that lost their way in the month of September 
last, recollected his having, during the time they 
were away, cut the letter P, which is the first of 
his name (viz. Peter Fisher), on a stone, whilst he 
was sitting downj resting, himself. From this 
it would appear, that the party in question, 
instead of proceeding, as some of them thought, 
a great way inland, must have gone to the 
eastward, no great way from the coast, for the 
distance between the place where the stone 
was picked up, and where the ships then lay, is 
upwards of twenty miles, so that their going and 
returning over that space would occupy no incon- 
siderable portion of the time they were away. 
Wednesday, 5th. —'The weather to-day, and for 
some days past, has been remarkably fine: the 
thermometer in the sun this afternoon rose as high 
as 46°; in the shade, however, it still keeps low; 
at four o’clock this morning it was 24° below. zero, 
and even at noon it was 12°. 
In speaking of the scurvy having made its ap- 
pearance last month, I omitted to mention that 
several cases of it occurred also in the Griper about 
the same time, one or two’of them with symptoms 
rather more unfavourable than any we had here. 
In consequence of this, and of their having a greater 
proportion of cases than we had, it was deemed 
expedient to remove the men’s bed-places, and to 
substitute hammocks for them, as it. was supposed 
