[41] This applies especially to the region lying to the north of 81° 10′.
[42] Schönau, near Teplitz in Bohemia, my birthplace.
[43] Sumbu and Pekel were my own dogs.
[44] Named after Dove, the celebrated German physicist.
[45] Parry reached, on the frozen sea to the north of Spitzbergen, 82° 45′ N.L.
[46] Kane’s dogs died principally in consequence of being fed chiefly on salt meat, and Hayes’s from a disease among dogs which spreads over all West Greenland. Epidemics of this kind break out among the dogs of the Eskimos and of the Siberian tribes. Middendorf mentions, however, that canine madness never occurs among the dogs of the latter.
[47] Snow-water was for two years the only water we used, and as none of us became goîtred, we were a living refutation of the opinion shared by many that its constant use generates this disease in the inhabitants of the Alps.
[48] On board the ship the temperature at the same time was -20° F.
[49] It might have been expected that seamen would have been acquainted with the use of the compass, though the instruments they had at their command were too small to determine the declination with precision.
[50] Franklin, speaking of his experience during his first journey, says that their diet of animal food had rather weakened than strengthened their powers. An Eskimo, on the other hand, often consumes 20 lbs. of the flesh of a seal in a day, and seems to thrive on it—a proof how the mode of living of a savage is no rule for civilized man.