198 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
officers of the watch an enormous board, on which 
was written 
" LE PERE ARCTIQUE / 5 
by way of visiting card,—proceeded to walk aft, and 
take the sun’s altitude with what—as far as I could 
make out, seemed to be a plumber’s wooden triangle. 
This preliminary operation having been completed, there 
then began a regular riot all over the ship. The yards 
were suddenly manned with red devils, black monkeys, 
and every kind of grotesque monster, while the whole 
ship’s company, officers and men promiscuously mingled, 
danced the cancan upon deck. In order that the 
warmth of the day should not make us forget that 
we had arrived in his dominions, the Arctic father had 
stationed certain of his familiars in the tops, who at 
stated intervals flung down showers of hard peas, as 
typical of hail, while the powdering of each other’s 
faces with handfuls of flour could not fail to remind 
everybody on board that we had reached the latitude 
of snow. At the commencement of this noisy festival 
I found myself standing on the hurricane-deck, next 
to one of the grave savants attached to the expedition, 
