AN ARCTIC CHRISTMAS 131 



matician and enjoyed calculations and plottings. He had 

 it estimated that in our particular location the hills to 

 the south were just so high and the hills at our camp 

 were of just such another height, and accordingly the 

 sun would appear above the horizon the 15th of January, 

 if the temperature was about zero, and probably a day 

 or even two days earlier if the temperature should be 

 thirty or forty below zero. I accordingly climbed to the 

 top of the highest nearby hill on the 15th, and sure 

 enough, saw half the sun above the horizon. I then 

 went home and wrote a long entry in my diary, telling 

 how glad I w r as to have the sun back. My joy was real, 

 but I now think that the preceding depression and the 

 consequent relief when the sun came back were largely 

 due to my imagination. I had read in the books that I 

 was going to be depressed. Had the books said nothing 

 about it, I think I should have failed to notice it. Any- 

 way, I have since spent nine winters in the North and 

 have never again felt any particular exhilaration at the 

 return of the sun. I have always been glad, however, to 

 see it rising higher and higher in the sky, for, although 

 the two or three months following its return are the 

 coldest of the arctic winter, they are on the whole much 

 the pleasantest part of the year, especially for one who 

 enjoys activity and wants to work outdoors all the time. 

 By the middle of January Mr. Harrison's fish pile 

 was getting noticeably smaller. He had a little flour, 

 just enough to make you wish you had more bread with 

 your fish. We could not eat more bread than we did or 

 it would not have lasted him till spring. He was anxious 

 to have it last, for he had the view (which I have since 

 found to be the opposite of practical) that it was best 

 to save such delicacies as you had so as to have a little 



