e who had cocoa as an article of supply.

Following the trail four miles farther north, we passed the Captain's
second igloo. He had unloaded his three sledges here and gone on to Parr
Bay to hunt musk-oxen. We caught up with the Doctor and his party at the
end of the ice-foot and pushed on to Cape Columbia. We found but one
igloo here and I did the "after you my dear Alphonse," and the Doctor
got the igloo. My boys and I have built a good big one in less than an
hour, and we are now snug and warm.

CHAPTER VIII

IN CAMP AT COLUMBIA--LITERARY IGLOOS--THE MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION OF THE
ARCTIC

Our heavy furs had been made by the Esquimo women on board the ship and
had been thoroughly aired and carefully packed on the sledges. We were
to discard our old clothes before leaving the land and endeavor to be in
the cleanest condition possible while contending with the ice, for we
knew that we would get dirty enough without having the discomfort of
vermin added. It is easy to become vermin-infested, and when all forms
of life but man and dog seem to have disappeared, the bedbug still
remains. Each person had taken a good hot bath with plenty of soap and
water before we left the ship, and we had given each other what we
called a "prize-fighter's hair-cut." We ran the clippers from forehead
back, all over the head, and we looked like a precious bunch but we had
hair enough on our heads by the time we came back from our three months'
journey, and we needed a few more baths and new clothes.

When I met Dr. Goodsell at Cape Columbia, about a week after he had left
the ship, he had already raised quite a beard, and, as his hair was
black and heavy, it made quite a change in his appearance. The effect of
the long period of darkness had been to give his complexion a
greenish-yellow tinge. My complexion reminded him of a ginger cake with
too much saleratus in it.

February 23: Heavy snow-fall but practically no wind this morning at
seven o'clock, when Dr. Goodsell left his igloo for Cape Colan to pick
up the load he had left there when he lightened his sledges, also some
loads of pemmican and biscuits that had been cached. We had supper
together and also breakfast this morning, and as we ate we laughed and
talked, and I taught him a few tricks for keeping himself warm.

In spite of the snow, which was still falling, I routed out my boys, and
in the dark we left camp for the western side of the cape, to get the
four sledge