50 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



pers, a small bag of nails, a piece of sheet lead for 

 patching the boat if a walrus should put his tusks 

 through her bottom, a bag of spare bullets, a can- 

 ister of powder and caps, spare grummets, a box 

 of matches and brimstone, a canister of coffee, and 

 twenty or thirty pounds of rye bread. A mast 

 yard, and sail are taken if a stay of a few hours 

 from the ship is contemplated; but a boat ought 

 never to leave the ship's side without — or even to 

 hang on the davits without — the whole of the other 

 foregoing articles being inside of her ; because, if a 

 boat leaves the ship, even if only to kill a seal a 

 quarter of a mile off, you never can be certain that 

 you will not be ten or twenty days absent — nay, you 

 never can be certain that you will ever see the ship 

 again! You get led on and on insensibly, in the 

 excitement of the chase, from one seal or one troop 

 of walruses to another, and the awful dense fogs or 

 sudden gales of these regions may come on and pre- 

 vent your finding your way back. 



In addition to all these absolute necessaries, we 

 always had one luxury, consisting of a bag of 

 mackintosh cloth lined with fur, and about seven 

 feet by four, rolled into a tight bundle and strap- 

 ped under the after thwart of each boat. This was 

 to crawl into in case of being long out in severe 

 weather; and, although we very seldom had occa- 

 sion to make use of them, still the sense of comfort 

 and security they gave one was very great, because 

 I consider that they made one quite able to defy am- 



