TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 163 
better known. I must confess, however, that even 
now, I can add but slightly to what has been 
said of him at the time he was taken. He became 
daily more domesticated, and was latterly so tame, 
that a person might handle him with great free- 
dom, without running any danger of being bitten ; 
he ate any kind of food that was offered to him, but 
what he chiefly subsisted on was bread and peas. 
Sunday 19th. — These ten days past have been 
as barren of events worthy of notice as any period 
of equal length since the commencement of the 
winter: —all nature appears, if I may use the 
expression, as if she had gone to rest, for darkness 
has spread her sable mantle over the whole sur- 
rounding scene; and the occasional howlings 
of the wolves, and the whistling of the wind, 
are the only interruptions to the perpetual silence 
that reigns over these dreary regions. ‘The plays, 
however, and such other sources of amusement as 
are within our reach, have hitherto made the time 
pass very cheerfully, and I hope that they will 
continue to do so. 
Tuesday, 21st. — ‘This being our shortest day, 
or, more properly speaking, the day on which the 
sun is farthest from us, several of the officers went 
out on the ice at noon with books to determine 
whether it was possible to read by the twilight, 
and, surprising as it may appear, yet we found 
that the smallest print could be read by it. The 
book which I took was a small (pocket) Common 
Prayer-Book, (which was the smallest print I could 
find,) and, by facing it towards the south, I could 
read it very distinctly. As the portion of it that 
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