GREELY'S ARCTIC WINTER OF STARVATION 361 



most, the oars being laid under it so as to maintain it in position, the 

 open spaces between the sides of the boat and the walls being cov- 

 ered with such canvas as they had. Around the stone walls and 

 over the top, snow was piled, and their living house was complete. 

 It sheltered them from the wind and from the extreme bitterness of 

 the cold, but beyond that nothing could be claimed for it. Every 

 one had to enter it on hands and knees, and, once inside, no one 

 could stand up, while the taller men of the party were only able to 

 sit up in the middle of the hut where the boat made the roof slightly 

 higher. 



The men arranged their sleeping-bags against the walls with 

 the feet towards the middle of the floor, and when they had crept in 

 through the narrow entrance, they groped their way into the bags. 

 Then, half lying and half sitting, with their shoulders against the 

 stones behind them, they made themselves as comfortable as they 

 could during the long period of darkness. They divided themselves 

 into messes for the purpose of feeding, and two cooks prepared the 

 food, an operation that was always difficult and unpleasant. It had, 

 of necessity, to be carried on inside the hut, and when the two men 

 were kneeling in a cramped-up position over the make-shift for a 

 stove in the middle of the floor, there was no room for any one else 

 to stretch his legs. Every one had to huddle up as closely as pos- 

 sible, and as all the smoke from the stove had to find its way out 

 of the hut the best way it could, the atmosphere during cooking time 

 was far from refreshing. The heat from the stove also thawed the 

 ground immediately under it and the snow on the canvas over it, so 

 that the cooking of every meal meant a wetting and a choking for 

 the cooks. 



The hut finished, a party set out for Cape Sabine in search of 

 the provisions supposed to be stored there. They returned on 

 October 9th, having found a record of the sinking of the "Proteus" 

 just off the cape and the starting of its crew in boats to the south 

 in search of the "Yantic." Some provisions were found and their 



