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LE ROY’s NARRATIVE OF FOUR RUSSIAN SAILORS. Gor
It may be inquired how came they by this idea? The anfwer is eafy. There are
few countries in which it is not ufual to f{moke hams, and geefe, as well as different forts
of fifth, and in Ruffia the practice is common of drying falmon, fturgeon, and other
of fimilar kind in the fun; which on faft days, and during the great faft, are ferved
up on table without the leaft preparation.
After {peaking of their meat, I mu{t now give a fhort account of their beverage. The
water which they obtained from the rivulets that {treamed plenteoufly from the rocks
of this ifland, quenched their thirft in fummer; and the.ice and the fnow, which they
melted during the winter, ferved them for drink through that part of the year when
they were confined to their hut. I muft not however forget to notice that their little
kettle was the veffel in which they fetched their water, and out of which they drank.
@ ‘The {curvy is a malady to which feamen are commonly fubject, and is more danger-
ous in proportion to an approximity to the pole; whether the caufe be attributable to
the cold, or to any other unknown circumftance. Let that be as it will: thefe un-
fortunate men, fhould they be attacked by this diforder, were without afliftance, they
therefore bethought themfelves of a means which ought not to pafs unnoticed, re-
putedly a fovereign preventative of this difagreeable complaint. It was Iwan Himkoff
who had paffed the winter feveral times on the weftern coaft of Spitfbergen, that made
his companions acquainted with this remedy. He inftructed them to eat raw and
frozen meat cut into fmall pieces, and drink the warm blood of the rein-deer, extraéted
from the animal as foon as killed, and that as often as the carcafes could be obtained ;
and, laftly, to eat as much as poflible of cochlearia ({curvy grafs), the only grafs which
grew on the ifland, and that but fparingly. It is for the faculty to determine, if thefe
fmall pieces of raw and frozen flefh, and this warm blood of the rein-deer, be fit for the
cure of the fcurvy. Might not exercife be concerned where this prefcription was
followed by thofe who were threatened with this diforder, or upon whom it had made
its appearance ? Again, no one is ignorant that cochlearia is a powerful antidote againft
the fcurvy. However, be this as it may: experience, in this inftance, illuftrated the
powerful influence of the prefcriptions adminiftered : three of the failors who made
ufe of this regimen were kept entirely from this complaint. As often as they hunted
down a rein-deer or a fox, as con{tantly they drank its blood. Iwan Himkoff, the
youngeft of them, had acquired fuch fwittnefs of foot at this exercife, that he could
leave the fafteft horfe behind, a circumftance to which I have been an eye-witnefs. The
fourth, called Feodor Weregin, had at all times an unconquerable averfion to the blood
of rein-deer, he was very heavy and very idle, and returning to the hut as foon as pof-
fible when obliged to make excurfions. From his firft arrival upon this ifland he was
menaced with this calamity, ‘and in courfe of time the malady had made fuch progrefs,
that he was fubjeét to a dreadful _weaknefs, accompanied by cruel fufferings. During the
laft year of his life he was bed-ridden, without ftrength enough to raife himfelf up, and
without the power of moving his hand to his mouth ; the companions of his misfor-
tunes being obliged to nurle him the fame as a new-born child *. |
In
* Although I have my doubts as to the efficacious operation of pieces of frozen and raw flefh cut fmall,
and the drinking of the warm blood of newly killed rein-deer, as a remedy for the {curvy ; it yet appears to
me that thefe things are worthy of notice. I certainly have found in the firft volume of a book entitled,
‘© Voyages and Ttcoried of the Ruffians along the fhores of the Frozen Ocean and the Eaftern Sea, as
well as towards Japan and America, publifhed by Miiller,”? that the inhabitants of northern Siberia make
ufe of frozen fifh, which is eaten raw, as a remedy for that fhocking diforder, and that it is effectual.”
Vide page 194,195. ‘ Our men dug out their refidence for the winter at the mouth of the river Cho-
tufchtach. Here the fcurvy began to affect our fhip’s crew; but they were benefited by ufing a decoétion
vOL. fF, 4H of
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