180 



THE SEA. 



close alongside each other, and the sails, supported by the bamboo masts and three 

 paddles, formed awnings over them. Supper over, the officers and men smoked their 

 pipes, usually raising the temperature of their lodging 10 or 15 ; the men told their 

 stories and "fought all their battles o'er again, and the labours of the day, unsuccessful 

 as they too often were, were forgotten." The day was concluded with prayer, after 

 which they retired for the night, a watch being set for bears or for the breaking up 

 of the ice. The cook roused them with a bugle call after seven hours' rest, and the 



THE EDGE OF THE PACK. 



work of the day commenced as before. The dietary scale seems to have been very 

 light for such hard work in that severe climate ten ounces of biscuit, nine ounces of pem- 

 mican, and one ounce of sweetened cocoa-powder, with one gill of rum per day each man. 

 The fuel used consisted exclusively of spirits of wine, the cocoa, or pemmican soup, being 

 cooked in an iron pot over a shallow lamp with seven wicks. 



The journey commenced with very slew and laborious travelling, the pieces of ice at 

 the margin of the pack being of small extent and very rugged. This obliged them to 

 make three, and sometimes four, journeys with the boats and baggage, and to launch 

 frequently over narrow pools of water. In other words, in making a distance of two 

 miles they had to travel six or eight, and their progress was very tedious. Fog and 



