CHAPTER XVI. 
i 
PREPARATIONS FOR ESCAPE-PROVISIONS—BOATS—TIIE SLEDGES— 
INSTRUMENTS AND ARMS-COOKING APPARATUS-TABLE FUR¬ 
NITURE— CRADLING TIIE BOATS — THE SLEDGES MOVING — THE 
RECREATION. 
The detailed preparations for our escape would 
have little interest for the general reader; but they 
were so arduous and so important that I cannot pass 
them by without a special notice. They had been 
begun from an early day of the fall, and had not been 
entirely intermitted during our severest winter-trials. 
All who could work, even at picking over eider-down, 
found every moment of leisure fully appropriated. But 
since our party had begun to develop the stimulus of 
more liberal diet, our labors were more systematic and 
diversified. 
The manufacture of clothing had made considerable 
progress. Canvas moccasins had been made for every 
one of the party, and three dozen were added as a 
common stock to meet emergencies. Three pairs of 
boots were allowed each man. These were generally 
of carpeting, with soles of walrus and seal hide; and 
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