[XXXIV]
MONOTONY OF THE POLES
(AT A FIVE O'CLOCK TEA)
The Lady: It's so good of you to come. It must be wonderful to have been at the Pole. Do you know, when the news first reached us, I was so excited I insisted on calling up all my friends on the telephone and asking them if they had heard. It must have been a wonderful trip. Won't you sit down and tell us all about it?
The Explorer: Thank you. We left our winter camp in latitude 83 degrees 7 minutes on October 24, with five men, four sledges, and thirty-two dogs. The long wait was spent in laying in stocks of seal-meat for the dogs, constructing sledges, breaking the dogs to harness, making meteorological observations, bathing, sleeping, and attending to the dogs. In the cold of the Polar night, work moves on rather slowly, but I always enjoyed the restful half-hour I devoted to winding up my watch. On August 24 we caught the first sign of spring.
The Lady: Of course.
The Explorer: But it was not till October 24 that the sun rose and the Polar day began.
The Lady: How very interesting!