196 Fatality amongst the Dogs. 



Dr. Bessels disagrees with those who assert that 

 total darkness prevails during the Arctic mid- winter. 

 He showed me his observations, and a sketch made 

 in 81° 38' (their winter quarters), from which it 

 appears that, on the 21st of December, they had 

 not less than six hours of twilight, which rose at 

 noon to an altitude of 10°. During the first winter 

 they lost twenty-five out of the sixty dogs they had 

 on board, most of them dying in violent fits. This 

 disaster was attributed to the carelessness of the 

 steward, who threw into the lee scuppers scraps of 

 salt meat, which were eagerly devoured by the dogs. 

 A depot was established at the winter quarters in 

 81° 38' N., consisting of 1,000 lbs. of pemmican 

 and other provisions, besides guns and ammunition. 

 With the exception of poor Captain Hall not a man 

 died, and although many were well advanced in 

 years, all returned in perfect health. 



The ( ' Polaris " was released from her winter 

 quarters in June, 1872, and after sending out a few 

 parties with unimportant results, her head was 

 turned homewards. She was then beset and 

 drifted out into Baffin's Bay, where she sustained a 

 severe nip in the following October. On the 15th 

 of that month it was blowing a heavy gale of wind, 

 and the ship was closely beset. Provisions and 

 boats were landed on the ice to provide for the 

 worst. Suddenly the ship broke away and flew 

 before the wind at the rate of ten or eleven knots, 



