We have now enough sugar to last us for seven or eight months, but by the survey of provisions which has just been completed, we find a deficiency of many other articles, including three casks of salt beef. Fortunately this is of no consequence as we have abundance of both salt and preserved meat, but it shows the alarming extent to which a negligent steward may mislead one. This unfortunate man has now got scurvy; want of exercise and fresh air is the apparent cause, combined with irregular living; the spirits have hitherto been in his charge.
PREPARATION OF SLEDGE-PARTIES.
The bustle of preparation for the extended searching journeys has been exciting. Hobson's party and my own are now all prepared, and Young having returned, we propose setting out on the 2d April—God willing. Young's new sledge will be ready, and he will also start a few days after us. All our winter defences of snow, our porches, our deck-layer, and our external embankment, have been removed. Dr. Walker, of necessity, remains in charge of the ship, with two stewards, a cook, a carpenter, and a stoker. My party, as well as Hobson's, will be provisioned, including the depôts, for an absence of about eighty-four days; but not being able to afford auxiliary or supporting sledge-parties, much time will be occupied in transporting our depôts further out, in order that we may start with as much as we can possibly carry, from the Magnetic Pole, besides leaving there a depôt for our return.
The declinometer was taken on board two days ago; hourly observations have been made with it for more than five months: we can no longer spare any one for this interesting duty.
24th June.—One thing is certain, the wild sort of tent-life we lead in Arctic exploration quite unfits one for such tame work as writing up a journal; my present attempt will illustrate the fact,—yet with such ample materials what a deeply interesting volume might be written! Since I last opened this familiar old diary—the repository alike of dry facts and the most trivial notes—winter has passed away, summer is far advanced, and the glorious sun is again returning southward. We too have endeavored to move on with the times and seasons.
As for myself—I have visited Montreal Island, completed the exploration and circuit of King William's Island, passing on foot through the only feasible North-West Passage; but all this is as nothing to the interest attached to the Franklin records picked up by Hobson, and now safe in my possession! We now know the fate of the 'Erebus' and 'Terror.' The sole object of our voyage has at length been completed, and we anxiously await the time when escape from these bleak regions will become practicable.
Apr., 1859.
THE START.