But we endeavoured to make ourselves as warm and comfortable as possible, chiefly by close stowing, so as to generate a little steam, in the absence of any fire-side warmth.

You have seen, perhaps, the way in which they box up subjects intended to illustrate the winter lectures of a professor of surgery.

Just so we laid; heel and point, face to back, dove-tailed into each other at every ham and knee.

The wet of our jackets, thus densely packed, would soon begin to distill.
But it was like pouring hot water on you to keep you from freezing.

It was like being "packed" between the soaked sheets in a Water-cure Establishment.
Such a posture could not be preserved for any considerable period without shifting side for side.