48 FROST-BITTEN FEET. 



nothing to eat for several days past but the 

 dry seal- skin mufflings of their oars — two of 

 them, who were in this boat, looked very thin 

 and pale. The worst of the story was that the 

 captain of the wrecked vessel had got both his 

 feet badly frost-bitten, and the object of this 

 other skyppar in now visiting us was to ask 

 if we were going over to Hammerfest soon, 

 that we might take the poor man with us, or 

 if we had any medicine with us which would 

 cure him. We had no medicine but a box of 

 pills and one of Seidlitz powders, and doubting 

 the efficacy of these in a case of mortification, 

 I recommended them to take the man over to 

 Norway immediately, or else to amputate the 

 frost-bitten parts of his feet without further 

 delay. The master of the sloop replied that he 

 and his crew could not afford to sacrifice their 

 summer's profits by leaving the ice with their 

 vessel only half full, and were afraid to take 

 upon themselves the responsibility of perform- 

 ing the amputation. I then told them that, 

 as we had just come out, and had already the 

 same number of souls on board our smaller 

 vessel as they had, with the addition of the six 

 castaways, we did not feel that it was incumbent 

 upon us either to go over to Norway or to 



