re in snow huts; or
they have perished. Still, many people have passed two and three
winters together in the Arctic regions, and have kept their health and
been happy, when they have had sufficient firing and good food. On one
of those occasions I learned to read and write, which I did not know how
to do before, and much use it has been to me ever since.

"Then we had amusements of all sorts. We rigged a theatre on board, and
acted plays and recited, and had a masquerade, and funny sort of dresses
we appeared in. But we had work to do also; we had to build a wall of
snow round the ship, so that in cold weather we were protected from the
wind when we took our exercise, running round and round inside it. The
worst part of the business was the long night and the bitter cold, for
it was cold, I can tell you; and glad enough we were when we saw the sun
rising just above the hillocks of ice far away to the southward, and
though for some time it was for a very short period above the horizon,
yet day after day at noon it appeared higher and higher, and its rays
shed some warmth down upon us.

"Still the winter was not over, and our captain arranged to make some
journeys to explore the country. In that part of the world dogs are
often used to draw sleighs, but as we had no dogs we were compelled to
drag them ourselves, about five men to each sleigh, which is a sort of
long carriage without wheels, with iron runners like two skates placed
under it, and the goods lashed along on the top. We carried our
provisions, tents, and cooking utensils. When the ice was smooth it was
pretty easy travelling, but we often had to drag the sleighs up steep
places, over hillocks, and rough ground, and then it was heavy work, and
we could only make good a few miles a day.

"A man need be pretty strong and hardy to go through that sort of work.
At night we slept inside our tents, as close together as we could pack,
the only warmth we could obtain being from the spirit lamps we carried,
which served also to warm up our cocoa and cook our food. I was not
sorry when the journey was over, though we were merry enough during it.
At length we got out of harbour, but we had still not a few dangers to
encounter. Sometimes we were nearly driven on shore by the floes of ice
pressing on us; at others we ran a great risk of being nipped by getting
between two floes which approached each other; then there was the chance
of the icebergs falling down o