THE LIGHT RECEDING. 
403 
explosion has risked his hand. I have dressed it, ex¬ 
tracting several pieces of foreign matter and poulticing 
it in yeast and charcoal. Morton has frostbitten both 
his heels; I hope not too severely, for the indurated 
skin of the heel makes it a bad region for suppuration. 
But they bring us two hundred and seventy pounds of 
walrus-meat and a couple of foxes. This supply, with 
what we have remaining of our two bears, must last us 
till the return of daylight allows us to join the natives 
in their hunts. 
“ The light is fast leaving us. The sun has ceased 
to reach the vessel. The northeastern headlands or 
their southern faces up the fiords have still a warm 
yellow tint, and the pinnacles of the icebergs far out 
on the floes are lighted up at noonday: but all else is 
dark shadow. 
