erfectly safe, however intense the
cold. Indeed, films keep almost indefinitely in the cold and do not
deteriorate at all. One learns, by and by, to have all films sent
sealed up in tin cans, _and to put them back and seal them up again when
exposed_, despite the maker's instructions not to do so. The maker knows
the rules, but the user learns the exceptions. When films are thus
protected they may be taken indoors or left out indifferently, as no
moist air can get to them.

The rule given is one that all men in this country follow with firearms.
They are always left outdoors, and no iron will rust outdoors in the
winter. Unless a man intend to take his gun to pieces and clean it
thoroughly, he never brings it in the house. The writer has on several
occasions removed an exposed film and inserted a new one outdoors, using
the loaded sled for a table, at 50 deg. below zero; taking the chance of
freezing his fingers rather than of ruining the film. It is an
interesting exercise in dexterity of manipulation. Everything that can
be done with the mittened hand is done, the material is placed within
easy reach--then off with the mittens and gloves, and make the change as
quickly as may be!

There is just one brief season in the year when high speeds of shutters
may be used: in the month of April, when a new flurry of snow has put a
mantle of dazzling whiteness upon the earth and the sun mounts
comparatively high in the heavens. Under such circumstances there is
almost, if not quite, tropical illumination. Here is a picture of native
football at the Allakaket, just north of the Arctic Circle, made late in
April with a Graflex, fitted with a lens working at f. 4.5, at the full
speed of its focal-plane shutter--one one-thousandth of a second. In
five years' use that was the only time when that speed was used, or any
speed above one two-hundred-and-fiftieth. Commonly, even in summer, many
more exposures are made with it at one fiftieth than at one
one-hundredth, for this is not a brightly lit country in summer, and
nearly all visitors and tourists find their negatives much under-timed.

The Graflex, though unapproached in its own sphere, is not a good
all-round camera, despite confident assertions to the contrary. It is
too bulky to carry at all in the winter, and its mechanism is apt to
refuse duty in the cold. The 3A Graflex cannot be turned to make a
perpendicular photograph, but must always be used with the greatest
dimensio