turn to Newfoundland.

A number of musk oxen were shot in the vicinity, and now and then a
ptarmigan was bagged. The men moved into the house in the latter part of
August, and Lockwood directed the laying out of the observatory and the
digging of the foundation pier for the transit. The earth was frozen so
hard that it was like chipping solid ice. The house gave the men
comfortable quarters. On the first Sunday all work was stopped and
religious services held. The intention was to send an exploring
expedition along the northern coast of Greenland, and it was placed in
charge of Lockwood. It would have been given to Kislingbury, the senior
officer, but for the fact that he and Greely were not on good terms.

Men were sent to examine St. Patrick's Bay to the northeast, for a site
to establish a depot on the channel of exploration. Such a place was
found and the exploring parties were continually active, some of them
going a good many miles from camp. Game was plentiful, but the wolves
were fierce. Numbers were poisoned by means of arsenic mixed with meat
thrown in their way. It being the beginning of their Arctic experience,
the men enjoyed themselves to an extent that would hardly be supposed.
This was mainly because they were kept busy and the novelty of their
life had not yet worn off. One pleasant custom was that of celebrating
the birthdays of different members of the party, which was done with a
vigor that sometimes reached good-natured boisterousness.

When the sun sank far from sight on the 16th of October, every one knew
that it would not show itself again for four months. It will be
admitted, too, that the weather had become keen, for it registered forty
degrees below zero most of the time and the moisture within the house
was frozen to the depth of an inch on the window-panes.

With the coming of the long, dismal night the wolves became fiercer, and
prowled so closely around the building that no one dared venture far
from the door without firearms in his hands, and the men generally went
in company, ready for an attack that was liable to be made at any
minute.

INTOLERABLE LONELINESS.

Time always hangs heavy when one is forced to remain idle and the dismal
night stretches through a third or half of the year. On the 1st of
November, Lieutenant Lockwood, accompanied by seven men, left the
dwelling to try the passage of the straits, hoping to push his way to
the place where Captain Hall made his winter qu