OUR HOME AT SHIPWRECK CAMP 103 
York; on various sealing trips; and now the self¬ 
same copy was with me on the Karluk and after¬ 
wards on my journey to bring about the rescue of 
our ship’s company. I have read it over and over 
again and never seem to tire of it. Perhaps it is 
because there is something in its philosophy which 
appeals to my own feeling about life and death. 
For all my experience and observation leads me 
to the conclusion that we are to die at the time ap¬ 
pointed and not before; this is, I suppose, what is 
known as fatalism. 
On the night of the fourteenth the dogs had a 
fight and one of them was killed. We could ill 
afford to lose him, for dogs were at a premium with 
us, now. 
On the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth the 
weather was threatening; the sky was overcast and 
the wind from the north and northeast, with 
temperatures not far from forty below zero. The 
sewing continued busily. On the sixteenth we 
overhauled our Primus stoves, of which we had two 
of the Swedish and eight of the Lovett pattern. 
We also reckoned the amount of oil necessary for 
them and found that an imperial gallon, which 
would fill a stove three and a half times, would 
make tea twice a day for fourteen days. The im¬ 
perial or English gallon is larger than the Ameri¬ 
can gallon; ten gallons English would mean a little 
