CHRISTMAS CELEBRATED 159 



returned to the shack without disturbing them, to 

 spend some lonely hours counting the days until the 

 vessel that I expected to come for me should arrive, 

 which I calculated as still two hundred and thirty- 

 three days away a very long while it seemed. But 

 it was a comfort to think that when the light and the 

 good old sun returned, with lessening rigors of cli- 

 mate and increased opportunities to be abroad, the 

 time would pass more quickly. I was growing very 

 thin, my fingers were bony and fleshless, my features 

 drawn and yellow, like the old Egyptian mummies 

 that one sees in museums all the effect of the long 

 night, with its peculiar influence. 



Later in the evening Oxpuddyshou and Awhella 

 Called to see me, and drove away my loneliness while 

 they taught me how to put the finishing touches on 

 a little ivory dog and seal that I was carving. 



Coming into the Arctic as I did with no intention 

 of remaining throughout the winter, I was ill pro- 

 vided not only with many things which would have 

 made my life more comfortable, but necessaries as 

 well. I should have brought with me a reliable stove 

 for the shack at Annootok. The one that was there 

 gave no end of trouble. It did not draw well, and it 

 was burned out so far that it was almost past use- 

 fulness. The back had fallen out, and was patched 

 with tin from old cans, and now the grate broke down. 

 I had to let the fire die while I improvised a new 

 grate out of pieces of old iron sledge shoes. Under 

 the most favorable circumstances it was difficult to 

 keep the shack reasonably comfortable. 



