THE ARCTIC NIGHT 
77 
life-belt on, as if for regular use, won the race. 
Williamson, the second engineer, was the winner. 
The Eskimo entered all the sports and even 
Keruk took part in most of them. I pulled in the 
tug of war, to make both sides even, and I am 
proud to say that my side won. We did not have 
the wrestling-match because it got too dark to 
see. 
It was a fine day and the men wore American 
clothes and sweaters. For several days before 
Christmas we had had a severe storm with a high 
wind which blew the tops of the ice ridges bare of 
snow and gave the scene the appearance of a 
ploughed field. On Christmas Eve, however, the 
wind subsided so that all day long on Christmas 
Day we had good weather, clear, crisp air, with a 
temperature of twenty below zero. 
Dinner as usual was at half past four. I confess 
that I felt homesick and thought of other Christ¬ 
mas dinners. It was my fourth Christmas in the 
Arctic; in 1898 I had been with Peary at Cape 
D’Urville on the Windward and in 1905 and 1908 
at Cape Sheridan with the Roosevelt, but our situa¬ 
tion now had far more elements of uncertainty in 
it than we had felt on those occasions and in addi¬ 
tion this time it was I who had the responsibility 
for the lives and fortunes of every man, woman and 
child in the party. 
