velt_ to Cape
Columbia, wrote as follows:

"When I was nearing Point Good, insensibly I paused time and again to
view the scene. I could see Cape Hecla to the rear and the Parry
Peninsula. In advance the twin peaks of Cape Columbia beckoned us on to
the second point of departure in the Commander's northward march. To the
north as we progressed, beyond the comparatively smooth glacial fringe
loomed the floes and pinnacles of rough ice which will try us all to the
utmost for weeks to come. To the south the circumference of the horizon
was bounded by the sharp, jagged, serrated mountain ranges, mostly
parallel to the coast. Every day we have a glorious dawn lasting for
hours. A golden gleam is radiated from parallel ranges of serrated
mountains. Individual peaks reflect the light of the sun, which will
illuminate them with its direct rays in a few days. There is a cornea of
golden glow, crimson and yellow, with strata of darker clouds floating
parallel to the coast ranges--Turner effects for hours each day and for
days in succession, the effect increasing from day to day. I am writing
under difficulties, Inighito (an Eskimo) holding the candle. My hands
are so cold that I can scarcely guide my pencil, as I recline on the bed
platform of the igloo."

But all this anticipates. On the 12th of October the sun had bidden us
good-by for the year, and the rapidly darkening twilight increased the
difficulties of the field work. Our photographs grew daily less
satisfactory. We had not been able to take snapshots since about the
middle of September; for, when the sun is near the horizon, though the
light is apparently as brilliant as in summer, it seems to have no
actinic power. Our first time-exposures were five seconds; our last, on
the 28th of October, were ninety minutes. The temperature also was
gradually getting lower, and on the 29th of October it was 26 deg. below
zero.

The fall work ended with the return of Bartlett and his party from Cape
Columbia, on November 5th, the other men having all returned before. By
that time the light had disappeared, and it would be necessary to wait
for the recurring moons of the long winter night before we could do any
more work.

We had gone up there in the arctic noon, had worked and hunted through
the arctic twilight, and now the night was upon us--the long arctic
night which seems like the valley of the shadow of death. With nearly
all the supplies for the spring sledge journey alre