AUTUMN AT CAPE SHERIDAN 67 



action must be taken, and in three days one hundred 

 and two dogs, twenty adult Eskimo men and women 

 and six children were sent into the field in addition 

 to those already out. From this time until the 7th 

 of February, the dogs and the greater portion of the 

 Eskimos remained in the Lake Hazen region, a portion 

 of the men coming to the ship during the full moon of 

 each month with sledge loads of meat, and returning 

 with tea, sugar, oil and biscuit. With their departure 

 the ship was almost deserted, daylight was nearly gone 

 and the winter may be said to have commenced, though 

 for convenience it was assumed to begin on the ist 

 of November when the winter routine of two meals 

 a day went into effect, partly as a measure of economy, 

 and partly to leave the short and very rapidly de- 

 creasing hours of twilight in the middle of the day 

 uninterrupted for work. 



The ice outside of us was constantly in motion, 

 more or less active with the currents of the tides, and 

 about the middle of October the young ice incessantly 

 forming between the large floes became of such thick- 

 ness, that its crushing up rendered the movement of 

 the ice very audible. First as a loud murmur, later 

 with increasing cold as a hoarse roar, sometimes 

 continuous, sometimes intermittent, like heavy surf 

 upon the shore, which kept the air vibrating, and com- 

 ing as it did through the darkness and frequently 

 snow-filled air, contained a peculiarly savage and 

 foreboding note. On the 31st, after dinner, I climbed 

 to the summit of our lookout hill and sat for some 

 time upon a projecting rock. A fine snow was falling 

 amidst a semi-luminous fog, through which just the 



