1913] OUR FIRST WINTER 41 



as our cooking-stove! He had promised this to Ras- 

 mussen for the Danish government. 



At noon of the 21st, the shortest and darkest day of 

 the year, we could easily detect a faint glow of light 

 in the south. The true darkness of night is the result 

 of a complete disappearance of all traces of twilight, 

 which occurs when the sun reaches a point of eighteen 

 degrees below the horizon. Our latitude was 78° 20', 

 therefore the sun at this time was only about twelve 

 degrees below the horizon. 



On Christmas Day we — including Tanquary and Jot, 

 back from the south — sat down to a glorious dinner 

 especially prepared and packed in New York by Presi- 

 dent Osborn of the American Museum of Natural 

 History. The menu: 



Cocktails 

 Mock- turtle soup 

 Roast turkey, cranberry sauce 



Green corn on the cob 

 Plum pudding, brandy sauce 

 Pineapple Ginger 

 Nuts and Raisins 

 Coffee Cigars 

 Enrico Caruso, Melba, Schumann-Heink, Gogorza, 

 Evan Williams, and other operatic stars were each in- 

 troduced for our pleasure through the kindness of the 

 Victrola Company. 



In the evening, each one of our sixty-one Eskimo 

 visitors received a portion of one of three large, delicious 

 fruit cakes presented to me by my good friend, M. J. 

 Look, of Kingston, New York, and each one exclaimed, 

 ^' Ma-much-to-suahr ("My, but that tastes good!") 

 Hundreds of presents sent by my friends to these far- 



