OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
103 
case had been entered on the sick list. To this favourable account, 
one exception, however, must be made in the case of Lieutenant 
Liddon, who had suffered severely from an attack of rheumatism shortly 
after our leaving England, from which he had not yet recovered. 
With regard to accidents, we had been no less fortunate ; a few injuries from 
frost, and one from a burn by gunpowder, which had not yet recovered, 
but which proved only of temporary inconvenience, constituting all the cases 
of this nature which had hitherto occurred. Not the slightest disposition to 
scurvy, the disease most to be apprehended under our present circumstances, 
had yet been evinced in either ship. In fact, the whole of the officers and 
men, with the few exceptions above mentioned, might be said to exhibit 
the finest aspect of health ; and it was no less gratifying to observe, that 
their spirits were in perfect unison with their corporeal powers ; so that it 
was impossible not to consider them as effective as at the commencement of 
the voyage. Under these co-existing circumstances, combined with the 
powerful preventives with which we were furnished, it was not unreasonable 
to indulge in a confident hope of finding ourselves at the beginning of the 
next season with our numbers undiminished, and our energies unim- 
paired.” 
In order to prolong this healthy state of the crews, and to promote the 
comfort of all, such arrangements were made for the warmth and dryness 
of the births and bed-places, as circumstances appeared to require ; and 
in this respect some difficulties were to be overcome, which could not, 
perhaps, have been anticipated. Soon after our arrival in Winter Harbour, 
when the temperature of the atmosphere had fallen considerably below 
zero of Fahrenheit, we found that the steam from the coppers, as well as 
the breath and other vapour generated in the inhabited parts of the ship, 
began to condense into drops upon the beams and the sides, to such a 
degree as to keep them constantly wet. In order to remove this serious 
evil, it was necessary to adopt such means for producing a sufficient warmth, 
combined with due ventilation, as might carry off the vapour, and thus 
prevent its settling on any part of the ship. For this purpose a large stone 
oven, cased with cast iron, in which all our bread was baked during the 
winter was placed on the main-hatchway, and the stove-pipe led fore and 
aft on one side of the lower deck, the smoke being thus carried up the 
fore-hatchway. On the opposite side of the deck, an apparatus had been at- 
tached to the galley-range, for conveying a current of heated air between 
1819 . 
October. 
vrv' 
