ing, and chasing Esquimos out of my
quarters. The Esquimos have the run of the ship and get everywhere
except into the Commander's cabin, which they have been taught to regard
as "The Holy of Holies." With the help of a sign which tersely proclaims
"No Admittance," painted on a board and nailed over the door, they are
without much difficulty restrained from going in.

The Commander's stateroom is a _state_ room. He has a piano in there and
a photograph of President Roosevelt; and right next door he has a
private bath-room with a bath-tub in it. The bath-tub is chock-full of
impedimenta of a much solider quality than water, but it is to be
cleared out pretty soon, and every morning the Commander is going to
have his cold-plunge, if there is enough hot water.

There is a general rule that every member of the expedition, including
the sailors, must take a bath at least once a week, and it is wonderful
how contagious bathing is. Even the Esquimos catch it, and frequently
Charley has to interrupt the upward development of some ambitious
native, who has suddenly perceived the need of ablutions, and has
started to scrub himself in the water that is intended for cooking
purposes. If the husky has not gone too far, the water is not wasted,
and our stew is all the more savory.

On board ship there was quite an extensive library, especially on Arctic
and Antarctic topics, but as it was in the Commander's cabin it was not
heavily patronized. In my own cabin I had Dickens' "Bleak House,"
Kipling's "Barrack Room Ballads," and the poems of Thomas Hood; also a
copy of the Holy Bible, which had been given to me by a dear old lady in
Brooklyn, N. Y. I also had Peary's books, "Northward Over the Great
Ice," and his last work "Nearest the Pole." During the long dreary
midnights of the Arctic winter, I spent many a pleasant hour with my
books. I also took along with me a calendar for the years 1908 and 1909,
for in the regions of noonday darkness and midnight daylight, a calendar
is absolutely necessary.

But mostly I had rougher things than reading to do.

CHAPTER V

MAKING PEARY SLEDGES--HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC NIGHT--THE EXCITABLE DOGS
AND THEIR HABITS

I have been busy making sledges, sledges of a different pattern from
those used heretofore, and it is expected that they will answer better
than the Esquimo type of open-work sledge, of the earlier expeditions.
These sledges have been designed by Commander Peary and I have d