THE WELLMAN POLAR EXPEDITION ' 495 



All three of mj' American comrades, unfortunately, were ill for 

 short periods during the winter, and this made it impossible for 

 any of them to accompany me upon the sledge journey to the 

 north, for which we were all winter busily preparing. But these 

 ills might have shown themselves at home, and were in no wa} 7, 

 due to the climate or the surroundings. We had good beds, 

 good food, including plenty of fresh bear meat, and American 

 oatmeal, bacon, and flapjacks were not forgotten. 



To the most of us the winter seemed short and not much of 

 a test of patience. True, the absence of the sun for 127 days 

 and nights was somewhat of a deprivation, leading us to the con- 

 clusion that if we were going to pass the remainder of our daj's 

 in those regions sun-worship is the religion which would most 

 strongly appeal to us ; but we had work to do, bears to kill, scien- 

 tific observations to carry on, books to read, exercise in the open 

 air to take when the winds did not blow too severely, and the 

 night was none too long. Almost every day we were out for a 

 walk or a run upon snowshoes, and glorious it was to get about 

 in the crisp air and the bright moonlight. But for the moon this 

 far-northern world would be the very depth of gloom during the 

 winter ; but when the skies were clear and the moon was full the 

 Arctic night was almost as bright as a winter day in temperate 

 zones, and some of our best photographs were taken under these 

 conditions. 



Bathing was not neglected by any member of our party, even 

 in the coldest weather. A tub of water was taken into the store- 

 house, one man at a time, and though the temperature there was 

 usually from 5 to 15 below zero, we stripped and bathed in toler- 

 able comfort, and without taking colds. In fact, such a thing as 

 a cold the writer has never suffered from in the Arctic regions, 

 though he has bathed in the open sea, diving from icebergs, and 

 refreshed himself by a naked plunge in a natural tub formed of 

 ice, floor and walls. Wool is now admitted to be better than 

 furs for extreme cold, though some travelers cling to fur gar- 

 ments. In the Arctics one does not suffer from the direct effects 

 of cold, but from its indirect effects in the formation of frost and 

 damp within the clothing due to congelation of the exhalations 

 from the body. It is for this reason that wool possesses superi- 

 ority to skins, as the former permit the moisture to pass through 

 the fabric, the frost forming outside, while furs retain it within. 

 Upon the sledge journey, in temperatures ranging from 10 to 48 

 below zero, the writer wore no furs, save a pair of reindeer-skin 



