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Feb. 28

"February ends. Thank God for the lapse
of its twenty eight days! By the tenth
of April I expect to find seal and when they
come we are saved! [Cannot call ourselves safe]

A fair review of our prospects tells
me that I must look the Lion in the face.
The scurvy is steadily gaining on us in
vain I sustain my desperate cases just
as I partially build up one - another is
stricken down. The disease is perhaps less
malignant [apparent] in a few cases than it was but it is more
diffused throughout our party. Except
William Morton, who is disabled by a [frostbite] frozen heel
not one of our eighteen are exempt. Of
the six quoted one month ago as the remaining
workers of our party two are
unable to do outdoor work and the
remaining four divide between them the
duties of taking care of the sick and
providing material by the hunt. Of these
four Providentially guarded men, one is
the Esquimaux Hans, another our Greenland
Dane Petersen, a third Bonsall
the fourth myself.

Hans now hunts aided by Petersen with what energy he has left.
These two last named chop five large sacks
of ice, cut into junks of one foot each six
fathoms of eight inch hawser, serve out
provisions, hacking at molasses and hewing
with crowbar and axe at pork and
dried apples, pass up the [confined] foul slop &
cleansings of our dormitory, and for the
past two days cook [scullionize?] and
attend the sick. Added to this I myself was strong
enouth to keep an eight hours vigil from 8 {.M. to 4. in
the morning - [taking] noting thermometers ever hour.

Now with this state of things before
us, we must look forward to 41 days
of nearly the same character as the past
thirty and in being guided by the