POLAR HOSPITALS 



of cans in the wreck cache, for medicinal purposes. This 

 I mixed with the little salicylic acid which we had, and 

 with the mixture I attended to the injuries. 



One of the serious questions confronting us was, how 

 to get the material to dress the wounds. We had found a 

 number of shirts in the clefts of the rocks near Cape Sabine, 

 left there by Lieutenant Garlington's party ; these shirts had 

 been wet and were frozen to a solid mass of ice. I beat off 

 the ice as much as possible, then placed them underneath 

 my clothes, and thus dried them for use. The aggravated 

 state of my rheumatic troubles to-day is probably a direct 

 result of this necessary action. 



While in this precarious state, weakened in body and 

 mind with but a couple of hours each day when we could 

 afford the faintest excuse for light, by burning a little seal- 

 blubber in a lamp, improvised out of a tomato can, with 

 a piece of an old woolen sock or undershirt for a wick; 

 or by burning a candle manufactured out of stearine found 

 in the British cache, with a piece of old rope as wick, 

 there would occur discussions which seemed full of ani- 

 mosity, and which have since been described as " bicker- 

 ings " and " fights." I beg the reader to imagine himself 

 in a similar position, if such imagination is possible, and he 

 will readily understand that they were only outbursts of a 

 weakened, tortured mind. In reality every man of our 

 forsaken little party helped his weaker neighbor at all points, 

 where such aid was possible. The great efforts that were 

 made to improve our poor larder cannot be realized by the 

 world. Our hunters, Sergeant Long and the Eskimo, 

 aided later by Sergeant Frederick, certainly worked won- 

 ders, and had it not been for the providential appearance of 

 a bear, and its fortunate killing by Long, none of us would 

 have lived to tell the tale. 



Our dear comrade Brainard worked incessantly for the 

 good of all, dividing the scanty food with equity, going out 

 during the coldest and stormiest weather to catch so-called 

 shrimps, in reality nothing but sea-lice, which helped greatly 

 to fill that aching void in our gnawing stomachs. 



Rice, together with Frederick, made another effort to 

 secure that much-coveted meat from Cape Isabella, aban- 

 doned on the first attempt, but cruel fate carried away our 



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