CAMP AT COLUMBIA 
While waiting in this camp for the Com- 
mander and Professor Marvin to arrive, we had 
plenty of work; re-adjusting the sledge-loads 
and also building snow-houses and banking 
them with blocks of snow, for the wind had 
eroded one end of my igloo and completely 
razed it to the level of the ground, and a more 
solidly constructed igloo was necessary to 
withstand the fury of the gale. 
We kept a fire going in one igloo and dried 
our mittens and kamiks. Though the tumpa, 
tumpa, plunk of the banjo was not heard, and 
our camp-fires were not scenes of revelry and 
joy, I frequently did the double-shuffle and 
an Old Virginia break-down, to keep my blood 
circulating. 
The hours preceding our advance from Cape 
Columbia were pleasantly spent, though we 
lost no time in literary debates. There were 
a few books along. 
Out on the ice of the Polar ocean, as far as 
reading matter went, I think Dr. Goodsell 
had a very small set of Shakespeare, and I 
know that I had a Holy Bible. The others 
who went out on the ice may have had reading 
matter with them, but they did not read it out 
65 
