288 
EFFECTS OF NIGHT. 
“Our snow-water has been infected for the past 
month hy a very perceptible flavor and odor of musk, 
to such a degree sometimes that we could hardly drink 
it. After many attempts to find out its cause, and at 
least as many philosophical disquisitions to account 
for it without one, I accidentally saw to-day a group 
of foxes on the floes about our brig, who resolved our 
doubts hy an illustration altogether simple and natural. 
'^'■January 22. On reaching the deck at half past 
eight this morning, after my usual sleepless night in 
the murky den below, I found the horizon free from 
cloud stratus, and the feeble foreshadowings of day 
bathing the snow with a neutral tint. By nine we 
could see to walk ; and as late as five in the afternoon, 
the refracted twilights hung about the western sky. 
How delicious is this sensation of coming day ! In 
less than a fortnight the great planet will he lifted hy 
the bountiful refraction of the Arctic circle into clear 
eye presence. 
“ I long for day. The anomalous host of evils which 
hang about this vegetation in darkness are showing 
themselves in all their forms. My scurvy patients, 
those I mean on the sick-list, with all the care that it 
is possible to give them, are perhaps no worse ; hut 
pains in the joints, rheumatisms, coughs, loss of appe- 
tite, and general debility, extend over the whole com- 
pany. Fifteen pounds of food per diem are consumed 
reluctantly now, where thirty-two were taken with 
appetite on the 20 th of October. We are a ghastly 
set of pale faces, and none paler than myself I find 
it a labor to carry my carbine. My fingers cling to- 
gether in an ill-adjusted y)/ea:MS, like the toes in a tight 
boot, and my long beard is becoming as rough and 
rugged as Humphrey of Gloster’s in the play. 
