3o8 NEAREST THE POLE 



officers' quarters, and, after some difficulty, fires were 

 started in both. When this was accompHshed, a 

 suspicious "wooden" feehng in the right foot led me 

 to have my kamiks pulled off, and I found, to my 

 annoyance, that both feet were frosted. 



Coffee from an open tin in the kitchen, and biscuit 

 from the table in the men's room, just as they had 

 been dropped over fifteen years ago, furnished the 

 menu for a simple but abundant lunch. A hasty 

 search failing to discover matches, candles, lamps, or 

 oil, we were forced to devise some kind of a light very 

 quickly, before our oil burned out. Half a bottle of 

 olive oil, a saucer, and a bit of towel furnished the 

 material for a small native lamp, and this, supple- 

 mented by pork fat and lard, furnished us light for 

 several days, until oil was located. Throwing ourselves 

 down on the cots in the officers' rooms, after everything 

 had been done for my feet, we slept long and soundly. 

 Awakening, it was evident that I should lose parts 

 or all of several toes, and be confined for some weeks. 

 The mean minimum temperature during the trip was 

 -51.9° F., the lowest -63° F. 



During the following weeks our life at Conger was 

 pronouncedly a la Robinson Ci*usoe. Searching for 

 things in the unbroken darkness of the " Great Night," 

 with a tiny flicker of flame in a saucer, was very like 

 seeking a needle in a haystack. Gradually all the 

 essentials were located, while my two faithful Eskimos 

 brought in empty boxes and barrels and broke them 

 up to feed the fire. The dogs left on Bellot Island 

 were brought in, but several died before they got used 

 to the frozen salt pork and beef, which was all I had to 



