CHAPTER X 
THE ARCTIC NIGHT 
The first few days of December were cold and 
stormy, with very high winds. I made up my mind 
that we were in the place where all the bad weather 
was manufactured, to be passed along to Medicine 
Hat and thence distributed to Chicago and Boston 
and points south. We got a little twilight from 
ten to two on pleasant days, so that the men could 
see to work out of doors. The health of the party 
throughout our drift was excellent. Every one had 
plenty of vigorous, outdoor exercise and slept 
soundly, though the incessant howling of the wind 
was not always conducive to a feeling of carefree 
contentment. 
There was considerable pressure early in the 
month at a point about a mile from the ship, which 
tossed the ice into rafters, but we did not feel it on 
board. On the tenth a ribbon of water about a 
foot wide showed in the ice about two hundred 
yards from the ship, opening and closing off and 
on for several days. The temperature was get¬ 
ting pretty cold now, down in the minus thirties, 
yet the air was clear much of the time and we were 
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