THE CUISINE. 129 
water between us and the sun had the effect of de- 
pressing the refracted images. I have prepared some 
curious tables, indicating the relation of the surface 
temperature of the water to the temperature of the air 
on board ship. They would be out of place here. 
Another extract from my journal of the next morn- 
ing has less of imaginative interest : 
'^August 14. I have just returned from a couple of 
hours' shooting. With two sailors to row, and as 
many ships' muskets to slay with, I brought back sev- 
enty birds. They are more scattered than they were, 
not flocking along the floes, but covering the sea. I 
notice them, with their crops full of shrimps, the un- 
grateful little gluttons, winging their way off to shore- 
ward. 
"We are living luxuriously. Yesterday our French 
cook, Henri, gave us a salmi of Auks, worthy of the 
Trois Freres ; and to-day I enj oyed an Arctic imitation 
of a trussed partridge. Bear is strong, very strong, 
and withal most capricious meat; you can not tell 
where to find him. One day he is quite beefy and 
bearable ; another, hircine, hippuric, and damnable. 
As a part of my Polar practice, I make it a point — al- 
beit I esteem a discriminating palate — to eat of every 
thing ; and, in the course of my culinary experience, I 
have already managed to convert several outcast eat- 
ables to good palatable food. Seal is not fishy, but 
sealy ; and with a little patience and a good deal of 
sauce piquante, is very excellent diet. The moliemoke 
is the hardest to manage ; the infiltration of fatty mat- 
ter is rather alarming. But I give my method, for 
future maitres cfhotel who may task themselves in 
these regions. Cut off" his breast; fling every thing 
else to his fellows, who are waiting for him outside ; 
I 
