CHAPTER XX 



CHRISTMAS ON THE ROOSEVELT 



TE four December field parties returned to the 

 ship one after the other. Captain Bartlett 

 was the only one who had found any game, 

 and he got only five hares. During this trip the 

 captain had an experience which might have been 

 decidedly uncomfortable for him, had it turned out a 

 bit less fortunately. He was up in the Lake Hazen 

 region with his Eskimos, and he had left them at the 

 igloo while he looked around for game. He had just 

 found some deer tracks when the moon went behind a 

 bank of clouds and the night became suddenly black. 



He waited an hour or two for the moon to come out 

 that he might see where he was, and meanwhile the 

 two Eskimos, thinking he was lost, broke camp and 

 set out for the ship. As soon as there was light enough, 

 he started off to the south of the igloo, and after a 

 time overtook his companions. Had he gone even a 

 little way to the north he would not have met them, 

 and would have had to walk back alone to the ship, 

 without supplies, a distance of seventy or eighty miles, 

 with a storm brewing. 



This party had bad weather nearly all the way home. 

 The temperature was comparatively mild, only ten or 

 fifteen degrees below zero, and the sky was overcast. 

 The captain made the last march a long one, notwith- 



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