THE CHRISTMAS FEAST. 615 



caught a small while fox in a trap yesterday. The nights 

 are brilliant, cold and clear. The scene is charming, if 

 we were only in a position to appreciate it. 



"December 20. Light wind ; cloudy. Joe found a crack 

 yesterday and three seals. Too dark to shoot. It is a good 

 thing to have game underneath us. It would be much, 

 better to have them on the floe for starving men. 



"December 22. Calm and clear as a bell ; the best twi- 

 light 'we have seen for a month. It must have been cloudy 

 or we are drifting south fast. Our spirits are up, but the 

 body is weak; 15 below zero." 



They began now to count the days until they could ex- 

 pect the sun to shine forth, with how much joy we can 

 partially imagine, when we recollect that for nearly three 

 months he had hidden his glorious face, and they had been 

 groping in the darkness of an Arctic winter. John Her- 

 ron must tell us of their Christmas and New Year's days : 



"December 24. Christmas Eve. We are longing for to- 

 morrow, when we shall have quite a feast half pound of 

 raw ham, which we have been saving nearly a month for 

 Christmas. A month ago our ham gave out, so we saved 

 this for the feast. Yesterday, 9 degrees below zero ; to- 

 day, 4 degrees above zero. 



"December 25. This is a day of jubilee at home, and 

 certainly here for us ; for besides the approaching day- 

 light, which we feel thankful to God for sparing us to see, 

 we have quite a feast to-day one ounce of bread extra 

 per man, which made our soup for breakfast a little thicker 

 than for dinner. We had soup made from a pound of 

 seal blood, which we had saved for a month ; a two-pound 

 can of sausage meat, the last of the canned meat ; a few 

 ounces of seal, which we saved with the blood, all cut up 

 fine ; last of our can of apples, which we saved also for 

 Christmas. The whole was boiled to a thick soup, which 

 I think was the sweetest meal I ever ate. This, with half 

 pound oi ham and two ounces of bread, gave us our Christ- 



