“Don’t you believe that, Captain Gar’ner.  I’ve known the most shiverin’, smoke-dried hands in a large crew, hardened and brought to an edge, a’ter a little trouble, as a body would temper an axe with steel.  The first thing to be done is to make ’em scrub one another every mornin’ in cold water.  This gives a life to the skin that acts much the same as a suit of clothes.  Yes, gentlemen; put a fellow in a tub for a minute or two of a mornin’, and you may do almost anything you please with him all day a’terwards.  One pail of water is as good as a pee-jacket.  And above all things, keep the stoves clear.  The cooks should be told not to drive their fires so hard; and we can do without the stove in the sleeping-room a great deal better now than most on us think.  It will help to save much wood, if we begin at once to caulk and thicken our siding, and make the house warmer.  Was the hut in a good state, we might do without any other fire than that in the camboose for two months yet.”

Such was the general character of Stephen’s counsel, and very good advice it was.  Not only did Roswell adopt the scrubbing process, which enabled him to throw aside a great many clothes in the course of a week, but he kept aloof from the fires, to harden, as Stimson had called it That which was thus enforced by example was additionally enjoined by precept.  Several large, hulking, idle fellows, who greatly loved the fire, were driven away from it by shame; and the heat was allowed to diffuse itself more equally through the building.

Any one who has ever had occasion to be a witness of the effect of the water-cure process in enabling even, delicate women to resist cold and damp, may form some notion of the great improvement that was made among our sealers, by adopting and rigidly adhering to Stimson’s cold water and no-fire system.  Those who had shivered at the very thoughts of ice-water, soon dabbled in it like young ducks; and there was scarcely an hour in the day when the half-hogshead, that was used as a bath, had not its tenant.  This tub was placed on the ice of the cove, with a tent over it; and a well was made through which the water was drawn.  Of course, the axe was in great request, a new hole being required each morning, and sometimes two or three times in the course of the day.  The effect of these ablutions was very soon apparent.  The men began to throw aside their pee-jackets, and worked in their ordinary clothing, which was warm and suited to a high latitude, with a spirit and vigour at which they were themselves surprised.  The fire in the camboose sufficed as yet; and, at evening, the pee-jacket, with the shelter of the building, the crowded rooms, and the warm meals, for a long time enabled them to get on without consuming anything in the largest stove.  Stimson’s plans for the protection of the hut, moreover, soon began to tell.  The skins, sails, and much of the rigging, were brought over from the wreck; by means of the carts, so long as there was no snow, and by means of sledges when the snow fell and rendered wheeling difficult.  Luckily, the position of the road along the rocks caused the upper snow to melt a little at noon-day, while it froze again, firmer and firmer, each night.  The crust soon bore, and it was found that the sledges furnished even better means of transportation than the wheels.