Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/73

Rh supply of the most excellent fresh water is one of the greatest boons to ships navigating in the Arctic Regions, and a luxury which is forbidden to ships navigating in other seas. In the Antarctic, since one seldom or never meets with such pools, one has to pick out a nice old hummocky piece of sea ice or a bergy bit that has been chipped off one of the great bergs, and take some boat-loads of this ice on board. The ice is put into large tubs or barrels, and steam is blown through. It rapidly melts, and is led away into the ship's tanks and makes most excellent water. There is no excuse for a ship having bad drinking water on board in the Polar Regions. Through the entire winter in Franz Josef Land in 1896 and 1897, at our encampment at Cape Flora, we had a huge barrel inside the house not far off from the stove. Every morning after breakfast, it was regularly filled with compact blocks of consolidated snow that were quarried out of neighbouring gullies. This snow kept melting all day and night, and there was thus a constant supply of good water available. But during the wintering of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, when the Scotia was frozen in Scotia Bay for eight months, sea ice was used for this purpose. A good old hummocky piece of ice would be selected by an officer, and then at seven o'clock every