LOSS OF AN ENGLISH SLOOP. 125 
by ten o'clock at night we had a hut twenty feet long, ten 
broad, and sufficiently solid, thanks to the trees which support- 
ed it at certain distances, to withstand the force of the wind, 
but not close enough to shelter us entirely from the cold. 
The two succeeding days were employed either in complet- 
ing our edifice, collecting during high water what the tide 
brought from the ship, or in taking an account of our provi- 
sions in order to establish the proportion in which they ought 
to be distributed. We had not been able to save any biscuit 
which was not thoroughly soaked with sea water. It was 
agreed that each person, well or ill, should be confined to a 
quarter of a pound of beef and four onions a day, as long as 
they lasted. This scanty pittance, scarcely sufficient to keep 
us alive, was all that we could allow ourselves, uncertain what 
time we might be obliged to spend on this desert coast. 
The 1 Itli of December, the sixth day after our shipwreck, 
the wind abated, so as to allow us to get the boat afloat, to go 
and seek what was left in the wreck. Great part of the day 
was lost in cutting away, with the hatchet, the thick ice which 
covered the deck and stopped up the hatchways. The next 
day we succeeded in getting out a small barrel, containing 
one hundred and twenty pounds of salt beef, two chests of 
onions, one of potatoes, three bottles of balsam of Canada, 
one of oil, which became exceedingly serviceable for the 
wounds of the seamen ; another hatchet, a large iron pot, two 
stew-pans, and about a dozen pounds of candles. This pre- 
cious cargo enabled us the following day to add four onions 
to our daily allowance. 
We returned again on board on the 14th, to look for the 
sails, part of which served to cover our hut, and to keep out 
the snow. The same day the wounds of those who had suf- 
fered most from the frost, and had neglected to rub them with 
snow, began to mortify. The skin came off their legs, their 
hands, and the parts of their limbs affected by the frost, with 
excessive pain. The carpenter, who was the last that came 
on shore, lost the graatest part of his feet, and in the night 
of the 14th became delirious, in which state he continued till 
the next day, when death relieved him from his miserable ex- 
istence. Three days afterward our second mate died in the 
same manner, having been delirious several hours before he 
expired ; and a seaman experienced the same fate the follow- 
ing day. We covered their bodies with snow and the branch- 
es of trees, having neither pickax nor spade to dig them a 
grave ; and if we had even been provided with them, the earth 
