, and placing
them in vessels that contained oil; though it was very far from sufficing
to keep life in the men during the hardest of the weather. The utmost
economy in the use of the fuel that had been so dearly obtained, was still
deemed all-essential to eventual preservation. Happily, the season
advanced all this time, and the month of October was reached. The
intercourse between the crews had by no means been great during the two
solemn and critical months that were just past. A few visits had been
exchanged at noon-day, and when the thermometer was a little above zero;
but the snow was filling the path, and as yet there were no thaws to
produce a crust on which the men might walk.

About a month previously to the precise time to which it is our intention
now to advance the more regular action of the legend, Macy had come over
to the house, attended by one man, with a proposal on the part of Daggett
for the two crews to occupy his craft, as he still persisted in calling
the wreck, and of using the house as fuel. This was previously to
beginning to break up either vessel. Gardiner had thought of this plan in
connection with his own schooner, a scheme that would have been much more
feasible than that now proposed, on account of the difference in distance;
but it had soon been abandoned. All the material of the building was of
pine, and that well seasoned; a wood that burns like tinder. No doubt
there would have been a tolerably comfortable fortnight or three weeks by
making these sacrifices; then would have come certain destruction.

As to the proposal of Daggett, there were many objections to it. A want of
room would be one; want of provisions another; and there would be the
necessity of transporting stores, bedding, and a hundred things that were
almost as necessary to the people as warmth; and which indeed contributed
largely to their warmth. In addition was the objection just mentioned, of
the insufficiency of the materials of the building; an objection which was
just as applicable to a residence in one vessel as a residence in the
other. Of course the proposition was declined.

Macy remained a night with the Oyster Ponders, and left the house after
breakfast next morning; knowing that Daggett only waited for his return
with a negative, to commence breaking up the wreck. The mate was attended
by the seaman, returning as he had arrived. Two days later, there having
been a slight yielding of the snow under the warm