I had also, frequently, a fire made in an iron pot at the bottom of the well, which was of great use in purifying the air in the lower parts of the ship.

To this, and to cleanliness, as well in the ship as amongst the people, too great attention cannot be paid; the least neglect occasions a putrid and disagreeable smell below, which nothing but fires will remove.
'Proper attention was paid to the ships coppers, so that they were kept constantly clean.
'The fat, which boiled out of the salt beef and pork, I never suffered to be given to the people; being of opinion that it promotes the scurvy.
'I was careful to take in water wherever it was to be got, even though we did not want it.

Because I look upon fresh water from the shore to be more wholesome than that which has been kept some time on board a ship.

Of this essential article we were never at an allowance, but had always plenty for every necessary purpose.
Navigators in general cannot, indeed, expect, nor would they wish to meet with such advantages in this respect, as fell to my lot.
The nature of our voyage carried us into very high latitudes.

But the hardships and dangers, inseparable from that situation, were in some degree compensated by the singular felicity we enjoyed, of extracting inexhaustible supplies of fresh water from an ocean strewed with ice.
'We came to few places, where either the art of man, or the bounty of nature, had not provided some sort of refreshment or other, either in the animal or vegetable way.