

XIV 



PREPARING FOR THE ARCTIC DAY 



ONE who has passed through similar experi- 

 ences can understand and appreciate the 

 sensation of comfort and luxury that I felt 

 upon returning again to my good, snug, clean camp 

 at Annootok. One's life is made up of contrasts, 

 and by contrast alone do we measure our enjoyments 

 and our pleasures. A life of indolent luxury and leis- 

 ure can have no great contrasts and is therefore pro- 

 portionately void of what goes to make real pleas- 

 ure. This thought came home to me then as perhaps 

 never before, and that little camp held for me more 

 of luxury and blissful contentment than the most mag- 

 nificently appointed city mansion can ever hold for 

 the man who has never been denied a wish or a de- 

 sire. 



All record of time had been lost by me, and now 

 I learned to my astonishment that I had been absent 

 seventeen days. Since leaving Annootok I had not 

 washed face or hands, for water in the Arctic winter 

 is a scarce commodity. Neither had I shaved, and a 

 look into my mirror revealed a very dirty, unkempt 

 individual. I filled a large boiler with ice, put it 

 over to melt, and presently experienced the supreme 



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