i 9 o2] SCURVY REPORTED 395 



returned traveller would demand supper to succeed the more 

 solid dinner ; he would wake in the night to devour a stick 

 of chocolate or to forage for better fare in the pantry ; and 

 he could be seen glancing anxiously at the clock a full hour 

 before each meal. It seemed almost worth going a sledge 

 journey to experience the delight of satisfying such a hunger. 



' October 3 (continued). — ... At dinner to-night I felt 

 especially pleased with myself and the world in general. 

 Armitage and Koettlitz had returned from their journeys, and 

 were able to give a rough outline of their movements, and 

 altogether our meal went very merrily ; nor was it till towards 

 the end that I had a suspicion that something was being 

 kept back : about one or two members there seemed to be 

 a sort of unnatural restraint, and I didn't know what to make 

 of it. 



' So after dinner I called Armitage into my cabin and 

 asked him what was the trouble. He looked very grave and 

 said that he had not meant to worry me until the morning, 

 but the fact was there had been an outbreak of scurvy. This 

 was indeed a shock ! At one blow it upset all one's sense of 

 peace and comfort. Of course one could not allow it to rest 

 at that, so the whole story had to be told. It is not a pleasant 

 thing to go to bed on, and I do not feel like writing it 

 to-night ; possibly also things may look brighter in the 

 morning when one is not so " done." ' 



* October 4. — . . . The history of our outbreak of scurvy 

 is more or less contained in the history of Armitage's journey, 

 into which I have been therefore with some detail. It appears 

 that after leaving the ship on September n, the party made 

 a pretty straight line for the end of the decayed glacier tongue 

 in the middle of the strait. Their progress was not very 

 rapid, as they stuck as closely as possible to the old worn ice 

 for the sake of safety. Even as it was, this course took them 

 within a mile of the open water. They reached the glacier 

 snout on the 13th, and camped securely on it. The ice 

 beyond the snout, and from thence to the westward, had 

 only recently been formed ; there was practically no snow on 



