SECOND AUTUMN IN THE ICE 5-7 



reservoir of oil a pipe leads clown and into the fireplace ; 

 the oil drips down from the end of this pipe into an iron 

 bowl, and is here sucked up by a sheet of asbestos, or 

 by coal ashes. The flow of oil from the pipe is regulated 

 by a fine valve cock. To insure a good draught, I bring 

 a ventilating pipe from outside right by the range door. 

 Air is pressed through this by a large wind-sail on deck, 

 and blows straight on to the iron bowl, where the oil 

 burns briskly with a clear, white flame. Whoever lights 

 the fire in the morning has only to go on deck and see 

 that the wind-sail is set to the wind, to open the venti- 

 lator, to turn the cock so that the oil runs properly, and 

 then set it burning with a scrap of paper. It looks after 

 itself, and the water is boiling in twenty minutes or half 

 an hour. One could not have anything much easier than 

 this, it seems to me. But of course in our, as in other 

 communities, it is difiicult to introduce reforms ; every- 

 thing new is looked upon with suspicion." 



Somewhat later I write of the same apparatus : " We 

 are now using the galley again, with the coal-oil fire ; 

 the moving down took place the day before yesterday,* 

 and the fire was used yesterday. It works capitally; a 

 three-foot wind is enough to give a splendid draught. 

 The day before yesterday, when I was sitting with some 

 of the others in the saloon in the afternoon, I heard a dull 



* During the summer we had made a kitchen of the chart-room on 

 deck, because of the good daylight there ; and, besides, the galley proper 

 was to be cleaned and painted. 



