MAN'S RELATIONS TO PHOSPHOBESGENCE. 117 



his way with Petersen to an Esquimau settlement, in order 

 to procure food. Their thermometer indicated 42° C. (44° 

 Fahr). With their weary dogs and sledges, they had reached 

 some untenanted huts at a place called Anoatok, after thirty 

 miles march from the ship. " We took to the best hut," says 

 Dr. Kane, " filled in its broken front with snow, housed our 

 dogs, and crawled in among them. It was too cold to sleep. 

 Next 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 Esquimau 

 lamp, we got up the temperature to 30° below zero, Fahr., 

 cooked coffee, and fed the dogs freely. This done, Petersen 

 and myself, our clothing frozen stiff, fell asleep through pure 

 exhaustion ; the wind outside blowing death to all that 

 might be exposed to its influence. 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 &■ refreshing night, when Petersen woke me with, 

 ' 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 

 snapping, 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 instant the pistol became distinctly 



