t they laid him in a
cleft of the ice, and he was soon covered with the snow. Meantime the
sixteen that were left went on as they best might with their task, and on
October 2nd they had a house-raising. The frame-work was set up, and in
order to comply with the national usage in such cases, they planted,
instead of the May-pole with its fluttering streamers, a gigantic icicle
before their new residence. Ten days later they moved into the house and
slept there for the first time, while a bear, profiting by their absence,
passed the night in the deserted ship.

On the 4th November the sun rose no more, but the moon at first shone day
and night, until they were once in great perplexity to know whether it
were midday or midnight. It proved to be exactly noon. The bears
disappeared with the sun, but white foxes swarmed in their stead, and all
day and night were heard scrambling over their roof. These were caught
daily in traps and furnished them food, besides furs for raiment. The
cold became appalling, and they looked in each other's faces sometimes in
speechless amazement. It was obvious that the extreme limit of human
endurance had been reached. Their clothes were frozen stiff. Their shoes
were like iron, so that they were obliged to array themselves from head
to foot in the skins of the wild foxes. The clocks stopped. The beer
became solid. The Spanish wine froze and had to be melted in saucepans.
The smoke in the house blinded them. Fire did not warm them, and their
garments were often in a blaze while their bodies were half frozen. All
through the month of December an almost perpetual snow-deluge fell from
the clouds. For days together they were unable to emerge, and it was then
only by most vigorous labour that they could succeed in digging a passage
out of their buried house. On the night of the 7th December sudden death
had nearly put an end to the sufferings of the whole party. Having
brought a quantity of seacoal from the ship, they had made a great fire,
and after the smoke was exhausted, they had stopped up the chimney and
every crevice of the house. Each man then turned into his bunk for the
night, "all rejoicing much in the warmth and prattling a long time with
each other." At last an unaccustomed giddiness and faintness came over
them, of which they could not guess the cause, but fortunately one of the
party had the instinct, before he lost consciousness, to open the
chimney, while another forced open the door