42 
TWELFTH DAY IN NOVA ZEMBLA. 
of these animals proved of essential service to the mariners; with 
the fat they supplied their lamps, and on an emergency they 
could make a meal of the flesh, although its extreme rankness 
was highly offensive and disgusting. The flesh of the foxes 
w as however by no means unpalatable, and a great number of 
these animals were caught in traps, set on the top of the house; 
the skins were converted into clothing and bedding, and were 
the effectual means of saving the crew from being literally frozen 
to death. It is a remarkable circumstance that the foxes and 
bears seldom appear in the country at the same time ; the bears 
migrate to other quarters, with the departure of the sun, when 
the foxes appear in great numbers, and follow their natural 
avocation of rapine and plunder. 
One of the most interesting incidents attending their dreary 
sojourn in their gloomy habitation, was, that although afar 
from all human converse, and suffering under privations suffi¬ 
ciently severe, to check every ebullition of mirth, the crew still 
forgot not to celebrate the respective holidays as they came 
round, to pledge the cup to those far away, and to whom 
their return was a matter of doubt and uncertainty. The cus¬ 
tomary fare smoked not indeed upon their Christmas table, but 
in hearty mirth and glee they ushered in the coming year, and 
surely no men had ever greater reason to look back upon the 
past without regret, or to look forward to the future with hope. 
It must, however, been a scene fraught with the deepest inte¬ 
rest and curiosity, to have viewed their jollities on twelfthday, 
when their cake was a pile of biscuits, and the crew sat round 
their rudely fashioned table, in their respective characters; the 
g mner appearing as the King of Nova Zembla, and the Queen 
on y distinguished from her subjects, by a white handkerchief 
tie round her head. In this manner they cheated misery of 
some portion of its poignancy, and, although in the midst of 
desolation, a beam of mirth still broke in upon them, and in 
imagination lighted them to the merry scenes of their country, 
and their homes. 
It was on the 27th January that the crew were exhilirated by 
the re-appearance of the sun,, and with it also returned their most 
