108 
BUILDING OBSERVATORY. 
vens, though still somewhat reddened by the gaudy 
tints of midnight, gave us Capella and Arcturus, and 
even that lesser light of home memories, the Polar 
Star. Stretching my neck to look uncomfortably at 
this indication of our extreme northernness, it was hard 
to realize that he was not directly overhead: and it 
made me sigh, as I measured the few degrees of dis¬ 
tance that separated our zenith from the Pole over 
which he hung. 
“We had our accustomed morning and evening 
prayers; and the day went by, full of sober thought, 
and, I trust, wise resolve. 
“September 12, Monday.—Still going on with Satur¬ 
day’s operations, amid the thousand discomforts of 
house-cleaning and moving combined. I dodged them 
for an hour this morning, to fix with Mr. Son tag upon 
a site for our observatory; and the men are already 
at work hauling the stone for it over the ice on sledges. 
It is to occupy a rocky islet, about a hundred yards 
off, that I have named after a little spot that I long to 
see again, ‘Fern Rock.’ This is to be for me the 
centre of familiar localities. As the classic Mivins 
breakfasted lightly on a cigar and took it out in sleep, 
so I have dined on salt pork and made my dessert of 
home dreams. 
“September 13, Tuesday.—Besides preparing our 
winter quarters, I am engaged in the preliminary ar¬ 
rangements for my provision-depots along the Green¬ 
land coast. Mr. Kennedy is, I believe, the only one 
of my predecessors who has used October and Novem- 
