392 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
spite all efforts to work and keep cheerful the darkness 
entered into the soul of the ship’s company, oppressing 
them more than the cold and more than the inadequate 
and uninviting food. The food was abundant enough, 
but much of it was in the form of specially prepared 
extracts and fibreless meats and fish, the condensed nour- 
ishment of which ceased to nourish, and for some un- 
explained reason the natural dislike to penguin flesh was 
very slowly overcome. Dr. Cook attributed the low state 
of health on board — a sort of polar anaemia — to the un- 
satisfactory diet as much as to the darkness. All suf- 
fered from impaired circulation and deranged digestion, 
the heart seemed to lose its regulating power, and gave 
rise to alarming symptoms, while the complexion became 
deathly pale, almost greenish. The groaning and crash- 
ing of the ice in the blackness of the endless night was 
a horror to listen to and the sound could not be evaded, 
nor the darkness dispelled, nor the cold resisted outside 
or the damp within. Dr. Cook repeatedly refers to it all 
as “ hellish.” 
Lieutenant Danco, whose heart had not been sound 
when he started, was unable to resist the accumulation of 
miseries which reduced the strongest to a state of lethargy 
and depression. He died on June 5th, before mid-win- 
ter, and was buried at sea through a hole cut in the ice, 
the commandant making “ a few fitting remarks,” for the 
sound of no religious service ever rose through the dark- 
ness of the first Antarctic night. Lecointe fell seriously 
ill and everyone was affected more or less in mind or 
body or both. “ We live in a mad-house,” said one of 
the cabin party. Dr. Cook devised a treatment for polar 
anaemia which seemed effective. It consisted in trying 
to do the work of the absent sun by exposing the pa- 
