Page 233

death to all travelers exposed to its influence -

How long we slept I cannot
tell but my admirable clothing
kept me up - I was cold but
far from - dangerously so and would
have slept out probably a refreshing
night when Petersen awakened me
with the expression “Captain Kane
the lamps out” - I heard this with a thrill of horror. The gale had
increased - the cold was [pressing?]
- the darkness intense - our tinder had become moist [I hurried
to my jumper sack and felt for my tinder bag - it was gone]
and was now like and icicle - It was wet to a paste with the frost -

All our fire arms were stacked
outside - for no arctic man will
trust powder in a condensing tempe=
rature - we feared to break down
our door way for that would admit
the gale - Our only hope of [heat?] was by a [unclear] [of our load?]
Petersen acting by my
directions made several attempts to
obtain fire from [his] a pocket pistol
but moss was his only tinder and
our heavily stone roofed hut or cave
would not bear the concession of
a wall rammed wad -

a [sketch] The circumstance which I am
now about to relate will be detailed
elsewhere - I have no comment to make
I state facts - verified by the parties
and I express the personal belief
- without attempting an explanation -
that it was due a [phenomena?] the agency was of electricity.

In the midst of our fire lighting
troubles my hands began to stiffen with the cold - [unbared?] began to
suffer from the cold - with some anx-
-iety I desired Petersen to charge the
pistol with a little loose powder &
hand it to me. The reason for
this request being that I had found