CHAPTER XIIT. 



INCREASING DARKNESS. — DALLY ROUTINE. — THE JOURNAL. — OUR HOME. -- 

 SUNDAY. — RETURN OP SONNTAG. — A BEAR-HUNT. — THE OPEN WATER. — 

 ACCIDENT TO MR. KNORR. — A THAW. — " THE PORT POULKE WEEKLY 

 NEWS.'' — THE TIDE-REGISTER. — THE FIRE-HOLE. — HUNTING FOXES. — 

 PETER. 



The steadily increasing darkness was driving us 

 more and more within doors. We had now scarcely 

 any light but that of the moon and stars. The hunt 

 was not wholly abandoned, but so few were the hours 

 wherein we could see that it had become unprofitable. 

 The gloom of night had settled in the valleys and had 

 crept up the craggy hills. The darkness being fairly 

 upon us, we had now little other concern than to live 

 through it and await the spring, and a return to active 

 life and the performance of those duties for which 

 our voyage had been undertaken. As a part of the 

 history of the expedition, I will continue to give from 

 my diary our course of life. 



November 5th. 



Our life has worked itself into a very systematic rou- 

 tine. Our habits during the sunlight were naturally 

 somewhat irregular, but we have now subsided into 

 absolute method. What a comfort it is to be reheved 

 of responsibihty 1 How kind it is of tlie clock to tell 

 us what to do ! The ship's bell follows it through the 

 hours, and we count its shrill sounds and thereby 

 know precisely how to act. The bell tells us when it 

 is half-past seven in the morning, and then we " turn 



