258 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. Marcs 



' 1 state, moreover, without fear of contradiction, 

 that there is not one experienced Arctic officer living 

 who would not have followed precisely the course 

 Captain Nares did in regard to his sledge diet.' 



Sir Leopold M'Clintock wrote : — 



' I think it due to Sir George Nares and his officers 

 that former Arctic experience should not be lost sight 

 of. If Sir George Nares erred in not having supplied 

 his sledge parties with lime-juice, then we Arctic 

 travellers have all likewise erred. 



' I have myself made several sledging journeys, 

 varying in length from 20 to 105 days each, without 

 either lime-juice or scurvy in any of my parties ; and 

 the experience of my brother officers in the Franklin 

 Search agreed with my own. Briefly, we lived upon 

 pemmican, and enjoyed sound k health. Therefore, 

 acting as I have always done upon experience when 

 obtainable in preference to any number of suggestions, 

 however valuable they may appear, had I been in Sir 

 George Nares' place I also would have left the lime- 

 juice behind.' 



As two of the members of the Committee appointed 

 to enquire into the outbreak of scurvy had personal 

 experience in Arctic travelling, it is to be regretted 

 that in their report they did not draw conclusions from 

 the knowledge gained during the numerous sledge 

 journeys which have been successfully undertaken in 

 the Arctic regions, on practically similar dietaries and 

 without any lime-juice whatever ; such as those of 

 Baron von Wrangell, Parry, Franklin, Eichardson, 

 Back, Eichards, M'Clintock, Sherard Osborn, M'Clure, 

 Collinson, Kellett, Eae, Hamilton, Mecham, Hayes, 

 and many others. 



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