214 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. December 



' An early dinner is necessary on account of the want 

 of fuel obliging us to put out the cooking-fires at 4 p.m. 

 Tea is made on one of the warming-stoves. 



' On Sundays, after church on the lower-deck, the 

 general muster is held outside the ship, then all hands 

 scatter over the ice and land ; the distance of their 

 wanderings being dependent on the temperature and 

 the amount of moonlight. On sacrament Sundays, by 

 mustering before church, the service is not interfered 

 with. 



« 3Ls'£. — At noon the ship was clearly visible from 

 the end of the half-mile walk, and we all noticed a 

 decided increase in the duration and intensity of the 

 twilight, or fancied that we did. In a day or two the 

 moon will return, and except during her fortnight's 

 absence towards the end of January, we shall have 

 a fair amount of light daily. 



' The old year is dying away calmly. There is 

 perhaps more excuse for us than for many in looking 

 forward anxiously to the next one, for if any can be 

 pardoned for wishing the present time to pass quickly 

 it is those undergoing their term of voluntary banish- 

 ment in these regions. Not that the time is hanging 

 heavily, for I can confidently say that no former col- 

 lection of officers or men met their monotonous and 

 lonely Arctic life more cheerfully and contentedly than 

 those under my command are meeting theirs. 



' Making due allowance for the difference of time, 

 at 7.55 p.m., it being then midnight in England, we 

 drank a Happy New Year to all absent friends, with 

 earnest wishes for as happy and successful a coming 

 year as the old one has proved.' 



