160 PHOSPHORESCENCE IN 



morning we broke down our door and tried the 

 dogs again. They could hardly stand. A gale 

 now set in from the south-west,, obscuring the 

 moon and blowing very hard. We were forced 

 back into the hut ; but after corking up all the 

 openings with snow and making a fire with our 

 Esquimaux lamp, we got up the temperature to 

 80 below zero Fahr.( 34'5 Centigrade), cooked 

 coffee, and fed the dogs freely. This done, Peter- 

 sen and myself, our clothing frozen stiff, fell asleep 

 through pure exhaustion ; the wind outside blow- 

 ing death to all that might be exposed to its in- 

 fluence. I do not know how long we slept, but 

 my admirable clothing kept me up. I was cold, 

 but far from dangerously so, and was in a fair way 

 of sleeping out a refreshing night, when Petersen 

 woke me with, f Captain Kane, the lamp's out/ 

 I heard him with a thrill of horror. . . . Our only 

 hope was in relighting our lamp. Petersen, acting 

 by my directions, made several attempts to obtain 

 fire from a pocket-pistol ; but his only tinder was 

 moss, and our heavily stone-roofed hut or cave 

 would not bear the concussion of a rammed wad. 

 By good luck I found a bit of tolerably dry paper, 

 and becoming apprehensive that Petersen would 

 waste our few percussion caps with his ineffectual 

 snappings, I determined to take the pistol myself. 

 It was so intensely dark that I had to grope for 

 it, and in so doing touched his hand. At that 



