20 CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 



Gray, tliiit. tlieie is no advantajne in liealtli in abstainers on board whalers, while Dr. A. Envall, who 

 accom|)aiii('(l Nordenskiold, condemns excess, but says he believes si»iritnous liquors to be of great 

 use in small and moderate quantities. Further mention may bo made to Professor Nordenskiold 

 and Lieutenant Palauder, who in 1S73 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 ])emmican, bi.scuit, 

 salt pork, butter, coffee in al)undauce, 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 1850-'51. 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 i)reven- 

 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, lie 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 (ionclusions may be deduced from the foregoing, it is evident that there is an abso- 

 lute consensus of oi)iniou both among executive and medical officers of late Arctic Expeditions iu 

 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 iu the Arctic atmosphere 

 that i)roduces 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 crew after unusual fatigue ami exposure; and I know of no place, circum- 

 stance, or condition under which such beverages as beer and claret are more palatable or more 

 valuable from a hygienic point of view than when taken at meals during an Arctic voyage. 



Illicit 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 Ghif/cr, Pain Killer, and Florida Water, 

 with a view to defrauding the revenue, proved on examination to be nothing but cheap alcohol of a 

 highly inflammable nature to which a little coloring matter had been added. Loath as I am 

 to give the least encouragement to intemperance, being rather an a<lvocate of temperance, I 

 cannot help thinking that it would be a stej) in the right direction, and one lu-oductive of 

 good, if instead of the present prohibitory naeasures the fur companies were allowed to sell small 

 iiuantities 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 " (piass," a vile 

 native decoction made from sugar and flour, both of which articles the traders have a right to 

 dispo.se of in uidimited 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 (;ounted 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 settlenu^nt, judging from tlu^ thousands of walrus 

 .skulls strewn in every direction and from the character of the kitchen-middens, was also depopulated. 

 It was a Golgotha in every sense of the word. A great numy 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 cainiibalism on the part 

 of the sutt'eiers. At these villages was made a fine collection of luimit crania ami 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 



