this day we began to put up the beams of our hut,
as the idea of being obliged to pass a winter here, filled us with
great anxiety; but as the vessel was now firmly embedded in the ice,
and we saw no prospect of getting it free again until the return of
fine weather, we were obliged to make a virtue of necessity, and
submit quietly to our hard fate. We tore up a part of the deck of our
vessel, and made a roof for our hut of it; then we plastered the walls
with pitch, and when, on the second of October, the building was
finished, instead of putting on the roof, as is customary, a pole or
bush, we erected a kind of staff, made of hard snow. We now took our
sleds, and drew tools and provisions to it; but the cold was so
intense that the beer casks burst, and their contents became a solid
mass of ice. After we had, for greater security, drawn the boats on
shore, and turned them upside down, we betook ourselves to our hut,
and arranged every thing within it as well as we were able.

III.

"With the beginning of November, the cold became so intense, that we
could venture out into the air for a very short time only, long enough
merely to collect what fuel we needed, and to set the traps which we
had placed round the hut to catch foxes, which I assure you were
considered quite a dainty by us poor wretches, greedy as we were after
fresh meat. On the 4th of November, the sun was no longer visible,
and a long and dreary night set in. All the light we had came from the
moon, aurora borealis, and the lamps which we hung around our hut, and
fed with bear's fat. The only consolation left us was that with the
sun the bears had left us, and we could now leave the hut without
danger of being devoured. The cold still continued to increase hourly,
and we were obliged to distribute our stock of clothing among the men,
in order to protect them better against the frost, yet in spite of
every precaution, hands and feet which were wrapped up in thick furs
and cloths, became stiff and numb, when only a few paces from the
fire. The best protection against the cold, we found to be heated
stones. We felt the want of spirituous liquors sadly; those we had,
froze, and when thawed lost both strength and flavour. Our health,
however, was much better than we had reason to expect, when our mode
of life is taken into consideration; but this, I imagine was owing to
the good advice of the surgeon to bathe daily, which we always did.
One morning, toward