DR. NANSENS SPEECH TO THE SAVAGE CLUB.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10425, 24 April 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

DR. NANSENS SPEECH TO THE SAVAGE CLUB.

HOW THEY CLEANED THEMSELVES

IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. Dr. Masses was the guest at the house diuner at the Savage Club, when Mr. J. Scott Keltie (secretary of the Royal Geographical Society) presided. The " Savages" were present in full force. The last time Dr. Nansen was present at the club was on November 18,1892. On that occasion he wrote his name on the wall at the back of the chairman's seat. Since then his signature, for the sake of preservation, has been covered with glass. At the conclusion of his speech, the explorer was induced to write his name and the date once more upon the wall. In the course of the proceedings, on the invitation of the chairman, "Skaal" was drunk to Dr. Nansen and his comrades. Dr. Nansen, on rising to respond, met with an enthusiastic reception, cheers and cries of "Skaal" being renewed again and again. He said: Brother Savages,—l must say 1 feel greatly honoured by the reception you have given me, though I think I have really deserved it, because as a Savage I think 1 have beaten you all. (Laughter and cheers.) I feel quito certain that if you had met me last summer in the month of June, you would admit that a better specimen of a savage you had never seen in your life. (Laughter.) ' I do not say so much about Lieutenant Scott-Hanson, He has not entitled himself so much to the title of a Savage, as lie led a comfortable and civilised life on board the Fram. As for myself, I must confess that it was the first time I lived for fifteen months without the aid of (lanelitor) —and I think that is sufficient to make me a fitting member or guest of this club. (Loud laughter.) I must confess there remained yet) a worse fate. We have eaten raw meat— boars, walruses, walrus blubber, and so on. The worst of all, perhaps, was the way in which we had to clean ourselves. Well, I won't go into tho details. (Laughter, and cries of "Do !"). Wo had no soap, as I have told you, and I con assure you it is rather a nasty thing, after having been obliged to skin walruses in the water and gotting your clothes soaked through with fat ami oil, to feel those clothes sticking to you in the most uncomfortable wav. We did our best to keep ourselves clean, and patronised many difficult methods of cleaning oneself. We tried tho l<!si|uimaux way, but that was no goo ). What we had to do was to use the knife and scrape ourselves. (Laughter.) That was all right so far, for the knife will scrape the skin clear in the long run, if you use it well, But it was worse with our clothes, and the only thing we could do with them was to boil them in our cookingpot. (Laughter.) Tho fat, however, would remain in the clothes, so after wo had boiled them for a sufficient time for softening purposes, wo took them out. and holding one end in tho mouth, scraped them. Thus wo extracted much fuel in that way, anil this we burned in the lamp. (Laughter.) Yes, it is quite true ; wo had fuel for our lamps for a whole day after having cleaned our clothes. When wo met Jackson, after having spent the whole wintor in our hut, which was not as big as this room— was 10ft long and Gft broad, and we had to lie in our sleeping-bag tho whole time—what happonod! One day I heard somo dogs— may have read about it in the papers—and I mot a man on the floe, and the first way in which I experienced the approach of civilisation was the scent of soap. (Laughtor.)