REPAIRING CLOTHING 



proper order, after which the journal was written up. 

 These important matters over, a ponderous book on his- 

 torical subjects received its share of attention. 



Socks were the only articles of clothing that had con- 

 stantly to be repaired and various were the expedients 

 used to replace the heels, which, owing to the hard foot- 

 gear, were always showing gaping holes. These holes 

 had to be constantly covered, for we were not possessed 

 of an unlimited number of any sort of clothes, and 

 many and varied were the patches. Some men used 

 thin leather, others canvas, and others again a sort 

 of coarse flannel to sew on instead of darning the heels 

 of the socks. Towards the end of the winter, the ward- 

 robes of the various members of the expedition were in 

 a very patched condition. 



During the earlier months the night-watchman 

 was kept pretty busy, for the ponies took a long time 

 to get used to the stable and often tried to break loose 

 and upset things out there generally. These sudden 

 noises took the watchman out frequently during the 

 night, and it was a comfort to us when the animals at 

 last learned to keep fairly quiet in their stable. Every 

 two hours the observations and the fire and acetylene 

 gas required attention. The individual was fortunate 

 who obtained a good bag of coal for his night watch, 

 with plenty of lumps in it, for there was then no diffi- 

 culty in keeping the temperature of the hut up to 40° 

 Fahr., but a great deal of our coal was very fine and 

 caused much trouble during the night. To meet this 

 difficulty we had recourse to lumps of seal blubber, 

 the watchman generally laying in a stock for himself 

 before his turn came for night duty. When placed 

 on top of the hot coal the blubber burned fiercely, 

 and it was a comfort to know that with the large supply 

 of seals that could easily be obtained in these latitudes, 



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