Remarks:
Ice cold! My beard was frozen today.—At noon we passed over the pole. Thought I would see something, but I was disappointed. Nothing there but ice and water. I wonder who will say they discovered the place? At last, Ham repaired the ice machine. I overheard him telling his wife he had forgotten to turn on some valve. I am going to discharge him as soon as we get on land.—Those bears actually smiled today. They seem to enjoy the attention they have been paid of late.—Too cold to promenade the deck or stand on the bridge, so I gave the officers a night off.
THURSDAY.
Remarks:
What the Medes and Persians say about trouble coming in bunches is true. Now, the heating apparatus won’t work. Nothing like that ever happened when we were down south. At 2.20 the hippo began shivering. At 2.30 the metriorhynchus superciliosus began shaking. At 3.00 the elephants shivered. At 4.00 the bothriospondylus madagascariensis began shaking. At 4.15 the Ark shook.—We drove the birds to the boiler room, and put the butterflies into the thermo bottle.—Surely poor Job won’t have more troubles than poor me.
FRIDAY.
Remarks:
No time for remarks. Busy hot-water bottling the tropical animals.
Remarks:
The Noah family slept in the boiler room last night. I do love the fire this weather.—The Ark looks like an iceberg.—We’re going downhill just as fast as those old engines will take us. Passed over Spitzbergen this afternoon.—I can’t get down south too soon to please me. I’m going to cruise around the Tropic of Cancer until I get thawed out.—The women folks are dead tired. It does them good to work once in a while. This is the first time they have done anything to pay for their passage, and they shouldn’t complain. If that fool python would only coil up, he wouldn’t take half so many hot-water bags.—Can’t spare the hot-water for my bath.