THE RETURN OF THE SUN 247 



Billy and I were alone now at Annootok with not 

 even a dog howl to break the monotonous silence. 

 We slept late the next morning and arose to find the 

 day warm and clear, though made unpleasant by a 

 north wind and shifting snow. Far out the ice pin- 

 nacles that rose above the frozen sea were reflecting 

 sunlight and we determined to make another effort 

 to see the sun himself. With this object we walked 

 directly westward over the frozen surface of Smith 

 Sound for perhaps five miles, when a high island of 

 ice was encountered, which we climbed, and upon the 

 most elevated point waited for the sun to reach the 

 meridian. 



Here we watched for half an hour, when suddenly 

 the good old sun appeared through a gap in the 

 mountains, and both of us shouted together, "There 

 he is! There he is!" It was glorious! It thrilled 

 me and made my heart beat faster. It inspired us 

 with new ambition and made life seem a good deal 

 more worth while. In a few minutes he dropped 

 again from view, but that one glimpse swept away 

 the gloom that had unconsciously settled upon our 

 souls during the long months since he left us. This 

 was March eleventh. We made our way back to 

 camp and drank "to the return of the sun." 



During this period we were favored with gorgeous 

 sky colorings. Some of the effects were beautiful 

 beyond description, and often every color of the 

 spectrum might be seen reaching up from horizon to 

 zenith, awe-inspiring and wonderful. Usually, too, 

 they were of longer duration than any I had ever 



