To increase our ordinary issue of anti-scorbutics, liberal as it
already was, we had from the commencement of the winter adopted a
regular system of growing mustard and cress, which the superior
warmth of the ships now enabled us to do on a larger scale than
before. Each mess, both of the officers and ships' company, was
for this purpose furnished with a shallow box filled with mould,
in which a crop could generally be raised in from eight to ten
days. The quantity thus procured on board the Fury now amounted to
about fifty pounds' weight, and before the arrival of spring to
nearly one hundred pounds; and, trifling as such a supply may
appear to those who are in the habit of being more abundantly
furnished, it will not be considered to have been without its use,
when it is remembered how complete a specific for the scurvy
_fresh_ vegetable substance has invariably proved.
With respect to the occupations which engaged our time, during
this season of unavoidable inactivity, I can add little or nothing
to my former account of the manner in which we passed the winter
at Melville Island; for the two situations were so nearly similar,
and our resources necessarily so limited in this way, that it was
not easy to produce much variety in the employment of them.
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