himself, as one or two did. They had a table 6 ft. by 4 ft., and the cook
had a kitchen table 4 ft. square, and certainly no crew space was ever
provided on a Polar Expedition that gave such comfortable and cosy
housing room.




CHAPTER VIII


THE WINTER CLOSES IN


The closing down of the Polar night was very swift now and the few hours
of gray daylight were employed collecting what data was required by
certain members for working on during the forthcoming days of darkness.
Young Gran was handed over to me to help with the survey work and
astronomical observations which had to be taken from time to time. He was
a most entertaining assistant. Without complaint, he stood patiently
shivering in that cutting winter wind whilst I swung around the
theodolite telescope and took angles for him to write down in my
notebook. I don't think anybody has made a triangulated survey under
conditions worse than we endured that epoch: the weather was beastly and
we spent much time dancing when nearly sick with cold, our fingers tucked
under our arms to recover their feelings. When one's extremities did get
frost-bitten it was no joke--frost-bitten finger tips gave us little
peace at night with their sharp burning pain.

The most interesting part of the survey work was what is known to the