180 THE WORLD OF ICE.

was about to lose a son! Yes, indeed he did; he
perpetrated that atrocious pun, and wasn’t a bit
ashamed of it. O’Riley had perpetrated many a
worse pun than that before; it’s to be hoped for the
credit of his country he has perpetrated a few better
ones since !

Yes, the period at length arrived when the great
source of light and heat was about to withdraw his
face from these Arctic navigators for a long, long time,
and leave them in unvarying night. It was a good
while, however, before he went away altogether, and
for many weeks after winter set in in all its intensity,
he paid them a daily visit which grew gradually
shorter and shorter, until that sad evening in which
he finally bade them farewell.

About the middle of October the dark months over-
spread the Bay of Mercy, and the reign of perpetual
night began. There was something terribly depress-
ing at first in this uninterrupted gloom, and for some
time after the sun ceased to show his disk above the
horizon the men of the Dolphin used to come on deck
at noon, and look out for the faint streak of light
that indicated the presence of the life-giving lumin-
ary with all the earnestness and longing of Eastern
fire-worshippers.

The dogs, too, became sensibly affected by the con-
tinued absence of light, and seemed to draw more
sympathetically than ever to their human companions
in banishment. A curious and touching instance of
this feeling was exhibited when the pack were sent