Page 261

260

[*mark here a*] (C.) At noon day in spite of the mist I can
see the horizon gap between the hills to the S.E.
(C. Wood Fiord) growing lighter. Its twilight is less
heavy, in four or five days we will have our
noon-day sun, not more than 8° below the horizon.
This depression which was Parry's lowest, enabled
him by turning the paper towards the south to read
Diamond Type. We will look forward to this
[comfortable] more penumbral state of darkness as an era. It has
now been 52 days since we could, by ascending
the dreary hills, read [the same lettering] such small type. What
a picture of Polar Winter, or Polar Night this
fact presents. Sixty days of darkness so
intense as not to be able to read such I cannot type out
noonday! One hundred and twenty four days
[lost to] with the sun below the Horizon!! One
hundred and forty before he reaches the
rocky shadowing of our brig!!!

Monday Jan. 15

[*mark this (C.) with [interrogation?]*]
There is a gap in the hills between
Bessie Isd. and the rest of the ridge. (?)
It is nearly due South and here
above an angular elevation of 2°. I to day
for the first time saw the illuminated sky
of twilight.

Found an overlooked godsend in [the shape
of] a bears head put away for a specimen
but soundly frozen. It contains no inconsiderable
quantity of meat and I serve it out raw
to Riley, Brooks, and Wilson. I do not
know that my miserable journal anywhere
mentions our habituation to raw meats. Our
journeys have taught us the wisdom of following
the Esquimaux appetite and there are few
among us who do not relish, a slice of raw
blubber, or a chunk of frozen walrus meat.
The liver of this animal ([Ahwuktenut?])
I maintain, when eaten with little slices of
his fat, to be a delicious morsel. Fire would
ruin the [curt?] , pithy expression of vitality