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three times a day for & with the entire squad -
treat them not as myself but a great deal
better than myself yet according to
Boardman its [not?] of no use.

[margin] Wnes, [12?] .6.

Mr Brooks is I feat more severely affected
than I thought his legs are so contracted
that he can barely crawl half upright.
We are now on an allowance of bread -
without eating any meat - this system is of
use for we find our mouths better and
as we have a short stock of butter we
can enjoy the hottest of hot rolls. The
winter has still four months in store for
us but we are prepared to meet him
with stout hearts I begin in secret sometimes
to feel an apprehension steal over me as
I mark the rapidly declining strength of
my companions. We have less of resources
than the Spitzbergen hibernators about
whom such frightful calamities are nar=
=rated - I am braced up by the trial ahead
and thus far have been as much or more
exempt from disease than the stoutest of
my party.

[margin] Thurs. Dec. 7.

At 10. am. while sleeping in after an
entire night watch I was awakened by
the repeat of “Esquimaux Sledgers Coming”
The strangers proved to be a party who
had escorted to our lonely harbour
two of our absentees These wretched
men were [Messrs?] Bonsall and Petersen -
who had reaped the bitter fruit of want
of faith and were now the bearers of
a frightful tale. It sums that the
party after receiving my last letter - urgent
by stating the dangers of their trip and
[unclear] them the face of [deserters?] so old
[unclear]