176 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. Octob] 



getting into the water. I have seen an animal resting 

 on a sloping snow-bank near the sea suddenly taken 

 with a fit. Evidently aware of what was coming, it 

 made the most desperate efforts to escape up the in- 

 cline, and howled dismally as its limbs refused to 

 perform their office. Finally dropping into the water, 

 it would have been drowned had it not been rescued. 

 The medical officers of the Expedition, Doctors 

 Thomas Colan and Belgrave Mnnis, paid the utmost 

 attention to the outbreak, and in several instances 

 animals that were severely afflicted with fits recovered 

 under their treatment, and afterwards did good work. 

 Dr. Ninnis has officially reported on the disease. We 

 are, I regret, unable to throw much light upon the 

 origin of this mysterious malady, which in some of its 

 phases is not unlike the description given of rabies ; but 

 there is no instance recorded in Greenland of human 

 beings who have been bitten having suffered from 

 hydrophobia, and the recovery of the animals in some 

 instances is entirely opposed to the recorded experience 

 of true rabies. 



After consulting with Doctor Colan regarding the 

 scale of diet which our stock of provisions would 

 permit us to issue during the winter, the allowance of 

 preserved meat was slightly increased, and the ration 

 of salt meat correspondingly diminished. Our supply 

 of fresh musk-ox flesh was sufficient for about twenty 

 days' allowance. Fresh baked bread was issued three 

 days out of four, biscuit on the remaining day. With 

 this ration the whole allowance of biscuit was seldom 

 consumed. As the travellers in the spring could not 

 possibly carry bottled fruits while absent from the ship. 



