148 Extreme Difficulty in Writing. fFcbruury, ises. 



standard tlieraiometer, at — 40°, then nly thermometer No. does not 

 register when at — 35° low enough by at least 5°, for at 10^- 10"^ a. in. 

 frozen mercury remained solid and fluid mercury froze." 



He now made his own records with great difficulty ; his inkstand 

 occasionally was warmed beneath the fur clothing of one of the 

 Innuits, the pen was constantly warmed by breathing on it, and tlie 

 ink in his pen breathed upon as frequently. His fingers and thumb 

 he wanned by a small lamp, whicli also heated two metal plates* 

 alternately placed underneath the leaf on which he wrote. The ink 

 was obtained from a deposit of icy ink-blocks outside of the igloo ; 

 slices from these were chipped off, crushed, and thawed inside. In 

 detailing this, and speaking of his frequent exercise necessary to keep 

 his blood in motion, he says, that " although apparently warmly 

 dressed in skins from head to foot, (his) vigilance in dancing on the 

 snow floor of the igloo to keep his blood in circulation was the price 

 not only of liberty, but of life itself" 



The supply both of meat and blubber for oil had now become 

 very low, suggesting grave apprehensions of want. The seal-meat 

 was all gone and the walrus-meat nearly devoured. The blubber, so 

 necessary for the lamp-light and for melting snow for their drink, was 

 consumed. The only supplies left were in the reindeer deposits, 

 which, in the severity of the cold, could scarcely be opened ; and their 

 tood-noo, without which the meat was poor food, was also gone. "Oil 



" His accoimt of these metal i)late8 is of interest : " I have before me a lamp with two wicks 

 kept constantly burning. The brass sheets are 10 inches each by 5 ; and while one is heated the 

 other, which has been made hot, is under the leaf on which I write, warming it ; this, in turn, 

 keeps my lingers warm and the ink from freezing in the pen, and dries the writing. Changing the 

 plates after writing on each half a dozen lines, I am able to make up my journals, the thermom- 

 eter at my side showing 42° below the freezing-point. It is a plan of my own." 



[The plates, with the pen, inkstand, and other relics, were at the Arctic exhibit put up for 

 the United States Naval Observatory at the Centennial, 187().] 



