148 
OCCULTATION OF SATURN. 
more probably migrated southward, and, as the spring 
opens, may return, with the walrus and seal, to their 
former haunts. We shall see them, I think, before v'O 
leave our icy moorings. 
“ December 12, Monday.—A grand incident in our 
great monotony of life! We had an occultation of 
Saturn at 2 a. m., and got a most satisfactory observa¬ 
tion. The emersion was obtained with greater accu¬ 
racy than would have been expected from the excessive 
atmospheric undulation of these low temperatures. My 
little Fraunhofer sustained its reputation well. Me 
can now fix our position without a cavil. 
“December 15, Thursday.—We have lost the last 
vestige of our mid-day twilight. We cannot see print, 
and hardly paper: the fingers cannot be counted a fo ot 
from the eyes. Noonday and midnight are alike, and? 
except a vague glimmer on the sky that seems to de¬ 
fine the hill outlines to the south, we have nothin# 
to tell us that this Arctic world of ours has a sun- 
In one week more we shall reach the midnight of 
the year. 
“December 22, Thursday.—There is an excitement 
in our little community that dispenses with reflections 
upon the solstitial night. ‘Old Grim’ is missing, and 
has been for more than a day. Since the lamented 
demise of Cerberus, my leading Newfoundlander, h e 
has been patriarch of our scanty kennel. 
“Old Grim was ‘a character’ such as peradventm ’ 6 
may at some time be found among beings of a hig'h er 
ordex and under a more temperate sky. A profoun 
