CLOSED IN AND SHUT OUT. 325 



width. But there we lay, and there we continued to lie ; it could 

 not be helped. The water was blown out of the boiler and the 

 engines laid up for the winter. 



This was a hard blow for us all. The fourth polar night in 

 succession is not a thing to be joked about. Worst of all was 

 that we were expected home this year, and perhaps an expedition 

 would be sent out in the summer to look for us. There was also 

 another aspect of the matter. How were we to know that we 

 should get free next year? But it was too early to begin 

 speculating on such things now. If we were going to stay here 

 another year we must see and keep life in the dogs through the 

 winter, so that we might do some work the following year as well. 



Of provisions for ourselves we had more than enough ; but 

 walrus-meat for the dogs must be procured at any price, and the 

 sooner the better. As walrus-catchers, however, it was necessary 

 that our clothes and footgear should be in order, so we set to 

 work to ply needles and thread with all the expedition we were 

 capable of. 



