Viewing page 70 of 87

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[in pencil]] 131 [[/in pencil]]

[[underlined]] Omne vivium ex ovo[[/underlined]]: "All animals are produced from eggs." Then how great events [[insertion]] may [[/insertion]] hang upon one Egg! The World's destiny may hang upon the good or evil pent up in [[strikethrough]] a [[/strikethrough]] very small & [[insertion]] very [[/insertion]] few Eggs! The whole world has been made better by that [[underlined]]one Egg[[/underlined]] [[insertion]] which [[/insertion]] produced a Washington - Worse [[insertion]] by [[/insertion]] that one Egg [[insertion]] which [[/insertion]] produced a Xerxes!
   At length Sterry cried out. (as if he had been drinking Mount-Parnassus-Water when [[insertion]] quenching his thirst in [[/insertion]] [[strikethrough]] a [[strikethrough]] Greenland Mountains [[insertion]]) Brooks [[/insertion]] - 'I have it! [[strikethrough]] Let [[/strikethrough]] Let us gather some fuel and make a fire!' 'Make a fire here of these barren rocks said I'! I could see nothing but rocks ice and snow - saw [[insertion]] here & there a [[/insertion]] little [[underlined]] green [[/underlined]] running brush like our running hemlock at Home in the States. Before 1/2 minute had expired from the time of Sterry's exclamation he had a roaring fire on the lee-side of a rock - in 1/2 minute more he [[insertion]] had [[/insertion]] placed one stone each side the fire - a small flat stone over [[insertion]] it [[/insertion]] [[strikethrough]] it there [[/strikethrough]]. On to this stone Sterry
[[end page]]

[[start page]]
[[in pencil]] 132 [[/in pencil]]

placed the egg with a small hole in its side placed uppermost that as it cooked, its [[insertion]] yolk [[/insertion]] might or might not ooze out. In 5 minutes the stone was hot & 3 more the Egg & 2 [[insertion]] of the [[/insertion]] Salmon Trout were cooked.
Now this fire was a great wonderment to me - its sudden appearance - its rapid spread.
Sterry has been 4 voyages to the Arctic Regions and therefore knows its resources. He had gathered [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] a few handfulls of the green running vines before alluded to & with a match started his fire.
On investigating this fuel: its composition its [[insertion]] quality for burning [[/insertion]] [[underlined]] quantity [[/underlined]], I was overwhelmed with astonishment! Where it had before looked barren and dreary [[insertion]] to me [[/insertion]] I now beheld thrift gladness! The principal of this fuel consisted of a low running vine sending up its numerous shoots here & there resembling very much running Hemloc[[underlined]]k[[/underlined]] of the States. It is a tough plant

Transcription Notes:
W R Sterry - ship's blacksmith