Page 11

[Header:] 9

This is a welcome [engrafting?] upon our seal
meat.

Hans thinks that the open water seen last
between Godsend Id. and Esquimaux
Point has worked up nearer Bedevil=
led Reach. The ice is quite unsafe off
Sylvia Head, and seal lie by their
Attuk between our brig and the shore.

Made arrangements for the disposition
of our coal - reserving twenty kegs for
our use should we make open water - and
the remainder barely enough to last us
for the present month. Separated for use.
We have a store of wood but so much
for Brooks and his coal. In oil we
are again stocked. Our seal yield is
an average of five gallons each. I sup=
pose we have a barrel (32 gall) already
tried out. Ten seal make a barrel
as is the case at Uppernavik at this
season. In the winter they use from
ten to fourteen. The blubber occupies
the same volume as is the oil subsequently
boiled from it. A fact somewhat puzzling
to those who remember the abundant
cellular tissue which sustains the fat cells.
It is explained by the increased expansion
of the oil with change of climate & season.

[Margin:] Wednes
June 14

By great exertion Hans was
practised during the entire day with the
sledge. In spite of the sneering prognostics of
that poor devil Godfrey he learnt rapidly
the main essential. The whip was already
acquired by Hans in the childish games
of [Fiskirnas?]. At 1. P.M. he started.
Petersen and Hayes pilotted him to
the land ice and thus I accomplished
a substitute for my rennegade.