stefansson-wrangel-09-40-004-001

Many corrections made in orginal that
are not made in this duplicate.

August 23, 1918.
OBSERVATIONS ON FOUR CAFES OF SCURvY.

The winter of 1916-17 seventeen members
the Canadian Arctic Expedition wintered in
Melville Island. The expedition vessel, the
POLAP BEAR, had failed to reach the island and
we expected to live the winter entirely on fresh
or dried muskox, reindeer, seal and bear meat.
However, during the darkness of winter, or sleds
got their steel shoeing worn out through the
a travelling pary's getting lost among some
rocky hills where the selds had to he dragged
scores of miles mainly over hills rock. This
necessitated my sending a party in midwinter
to Winter Harbor on the sme island (where in
the past several vessels have wintered) to
see if they could find abandoned iron or steel
and shoe the sleds for the spring work. Some
of our people made another trip to the same
place during the winter for a different purpose.

At winter Harbor or men found, besides
the metal and other repair materials wanted,
several tons of food, kerosene, etc., cached
there in 1910 by Cotain Bernier, then in
Canadian Government service. It was against
my jugdement, because of fear of scurvy and
because of trouble in freighting the food, to
use any considerable quantity of these edibles
at our winter camp; but the men had an idea that
the cached foods were much preferable to meat
and so I allowed them to eat all they wanted
of these groceries while at Winter Harbor, tho
the amount hauled to the base camp and eaten
there amounted to less than three full reals per
week - one full meal per week would be nearer
the actual fact.

The main items of food found at Winter
Harbor were: flour, salt pork, butter, honey,
sugar, pilot bread, preserved fruit in glass
containers, dried fruit, rice, beans, peas.
All this food was, so far as we could judge in
perfect condition except the pork and the sugar.
Much of the brine had leaked out of the barrels
and as they were above the sugar some of the
brine had premeated most of the sugar so that
the taste of it ranged from barely perceptible
saltiness when used in tea to saltiness that
made the sugar disagreeabe no matter how used.
There may have been a little sugar unaffected.
The penmican was salted to be palatable to
the ordinary eater: the Bovril seemed to consist
in considerable part of rock salt, some of the
particles nearly the size of a split pea.