Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/252

 swallowed a fox which Jensen brought in from one of his traps, and which he had turned over to the boy to skin. Out on the ice I found a boisterous group engaged around two large tin kettles. They were stirring something with wooden sticks, and I found that, at 34° below zero, they were making "water ice" and "Roman punch" by wholesale. They needed no chemical compounds for their "freezer."

At six o'clock I joined the officers at dinner. Our glass and crockery has, in some mysterious manner known only to the steward, been disappearing from the time of leaving Boston, but there is plenty of tin ware to supply the deficiency, and each cup contained a boquet of flowers, cut from tissue-paper, and a mammoth centre-piece of the same materials stood under the glittering chandelier. The dinner was much enjoyed by everybody, and if we lacked the orthodox turkey, the haunch was not a bad substitute.

I remained until nine o'clock, and left the party to a merry evening. The hour for extinguishing the lights was put off at discretion; and, having myself granted this privilege, I cannot, of course, say that any of the proprieties of discipline or of ship-board life were interfered with. Rejoiced to see that the people had the spirit to be merry at all, I was only too glad to encourage them in it. Every part of the "Festival," as they facetiously call it, was conducted in a very orderly manner. The "ball" came off as promised, and when I went up, about midnight, to have a look at the merrymakers, I found Knorr, wrapped in furs, seated upon a keg, fiddling away in a very energetic manner, while Barnum and McDonald were going through a sailor's hornpipe with immense eclat; then Carl swung the steward round in