DINNERS UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, 24 December 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

DINNERS UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

?';'I.OR!NG XPEDITIONS’ XTRA- - ORDINARY XMAS MEALS. Dinner on Christmas Day," says Li-utenant Shackleton, ‘ was the only xqnare meal we were able to treat ourselves to between the middle ot Novem-b->r and the end of February. : Fortv-eiglit degrees of frost, and a tirn-y' southerly wind were the coni TOons under v.bieh they pitched their camp, at an altitude or 0.-mVA feet : Ixe-e sea level. The snow, in spite ot the cold, was soft, and they were desperately tired when, at G p.m., they st' opei for the night. Their dinner consisted of a pony rati m toiled with pemmican, beef-tea, biscuit, then a small plum-pudding, which, for lack of cooking utensils and to spare fuel, they were forced to boil in the cocoa which they topped up with.

Sir William Russell, the great war correspondent, tells a story of the <!;■- ficulths of a Christmas dinner during the awful winter of 1854. when ov.r troops, half starved aod in raizs, lay m the snow outside Constantinople. FIFTY MILES FOR FLOUR. Mr. Christmas Fve it was discovcre-l that all the flour had gone bad. There was nothing left to make a pudding of. Young Russell volunteered to get some, ard started out to do so. He had to ride tiftv miles to remh a place where he could purchase flour, and ne also succeeded in some raisins and a f -.v skinnv chickens. After struggling through deep snow, he reached camp mzaiirat midday on December 25th. His friends turned out and cheered hiin on his return . Frank Bullen. th» tamons author of '-'The C.ui-e of th? Cachalot ” has rpeiit many strung* Christmases, but rene perhaps more nnc-iinfortable than that of the year 1880. _. . , A few weeks before Christmas ne found hirrself stranded, penniless, in a email Nova Scotian town called Parrstoro ’ Here he nearly starred, and was cverjoved when the owner of a little twenty-four-ton schooner offered him a ir.b to h'ln ther dew i to the West Indies. Th" two. ai d two tors, formed the e'tTo crew. Th v left on ti •* 22rd. and C*hri«tnin« F.ie found them rrnnmg through a howling gale, with ths coisl so : rt -is>* that the spray froz? v.s it toll. Thc*v snent a night of intolcnv'Hlp- mnerv. :;i A d then they managed t> st'-p-cl- into the knrto'ir of Ya* month. Nora Se-dia. where they tool; re* l ”'’ u* o' ■ cabin. IL rt they dined on rot,it re?, mggv rolls, end coffe*-n-nde of b-trnt '.-road, sweetened with BAGGING A WART-HOtS. Christmas. 189”. found the explorer. Captain A. E. H. Gibbons, struggling across Bands?! a nd. through, dense jungle, and at a height of nearly 4.09’ feet above the sea level. The expedition wns almost without topd, and th • leader determined to camp, and see if it were not : os-ib'p to shoot somethin.' to brighten the Yub’-tide board. A wart-hog was -on at a dist.incof a. tout 300 yards, and the captain set himself to stalk i". when the brute ct-uzht sight of him. and charged. His rifle spoke, and over went, the hog. dead. Then began the cooking of the Christmas dinner. The East African jungle is very tontiti’iil. hut s'.f-h a Christmas as was spent in 1.892 l.y W. \\ . A. Fitzgerald, another noted explorer, will not to envied by mc.s + t.f our readers. Christinas Day found Mr. Fitzgerald and his yartv cnii-.tvd in fix-. heat. Flies were in s‘in zing. swarming clouds. No cue h’.J nur’h ’i" l tor dinner, and ai -con c. h■* ;id eaten his grilled nnmis.ni tv * expl rcr made a cup of

rad *?-*’< :* i th' l s’-ir* r>.«. P ., •■ v ; -. l; > ] .* -s'-.rn L ; «s. A jrt-pn irninl*i a large mid deadly ser-n-rv v.-■= <■ <• • ’ ’l’-’ table leg. Ij. .a «. ..■ i , ~j ■» ... right n-*rc,ss hfs *pr Hp *."t ! i\r. r > >l.l*ll'’, white the cold u-rarnrra ion drinped from hi s ? forcin'nd. .V las' til--* brute glided away and Vr Fitzg-rald sprang up, and rushed out.