THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 607 



they can be dried by being hung up in the snowhouse or preferably 

 by being worn in the house so that the heat of the body can co- 

 operate with the heat generated by the stove for rapid drying. 

 Occasionally I have rolled my sleeping-bag against the snow wall 

 in the night, getting part of it wet. All I have to do then is to 

 see that the wet side is uppermost when next I sleep in it and in a 

 night or two it will be dry. 



On the trip of this spring we occasionally had to build houses 

 of snow that was granular and to a degree porous. It happened, 

 therefore, several times that it froze in our houses at night, though 

 I do not think that the temperature ever went as low as zero. 

 Still, it was our most uncomfortable trip and in that connection 

 we used to discuss which we disliked more, the extreme heat we 

 had experienced in various places or this extreme cold. Most of 

 the men agreed that a temperature of anything above ninety in the 

 shade constitutes the greater hardship. From heat there has been 

 devised as yet no escape, but one suffers from cold only through de- 

 fect in one's clothing, housing, or heating system. 



