158 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



death, if such a thing can be awful, impressive and 

 oppressive. One must experience this to fully com- 

 prehend it. No pen can adequately describe it. 

 Overhead the stars shone bigger, brighter and closer 

 to earth than I had ever seen them before, while vast 

 numbers of meteors shot hither and thither through 

 the heavens, leaving behind them long trails of fire. 

 This is the Arctic night wonderful in its glory, se- 

 ductive and repellent, elating and depressing, mag- 

 nificent and awe-inspiring. 



New Year's day, like Christmas, brought with it 

 some hours of homesickness. I watched the old year 

 out and the new in, and recalled how pleasantly I had 

 spent the same day, a year before, quail-shooting in 

 the South, and could not help contrasting the present 

 with then, and the vastly different conditions and 

 surroundings in which I now found myself. 



At half -past ten I began preparations for my New 

 Year's dinner, and at two o'clock had everything 

 ready to serve as fine a banquet as one could wish 

 for. There was roast venison with cranberry sauce, 

 canned corn, boiled macaroni, and a splendid rice pud- 

 ding. This was the first dinner of the kind I had 

 prepared, and it was really a grand success. I in- 

 vited Billy and the boatswain to join me. We began 

 by drinking a Happy New Year to all our friends 

 and families, and then enjoyed our feast to the utmost. 



After dinner I put on warm clothes and took a 

 long walk on the ice foot; but it was so dark I had 

 to carry a lantern. On my way back to camp I called 

 at all the igloos, but found every one sleeping, and 



