In order still farther to promote good-humour among ourselves, as well as to furnish amusing occupation during the hours of constant darkness, we set on foot a weekly newspaper, which was to be called the _North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle_, and of which Captain Sabine undertook to be the editor, under the promise that it was to be supported by original contributions from the officers of the two ships: and I can safely say, that the weekly contributions had the happy effect of employing the leisure hours of those who furnished them, and of diverting the mind from the gloomy prospect which would sometimes obtrude itself on the stoutest heart.
Immediately on our arrival in harbour, Captain Sabine had employed himself in selecting a place for the observatory, which was erected in a convenient spot, about seven hundred yards to the westward of the ships. It was also considered advisable immediately to set about building a house near the beach for the reception of the clocks and instruments. For this purpose we made use of a quantity of fir-plank, which was intended for the construction of spare boats, and which was so cut as not to injure it for that purpose. The ground was so hard frozen that it required great labour to dig holes for the upright posts which formed the support of the sides. The walls of this house being double, with moss placed between the two, a high temperature could, even in the severest weather which we might be doomed to experience, be kept up in it without difficulty by a single stove.
After our arrival in port we saw several reindeer and a few coveys of grouse; but the country is so destitute of everything like cover of any kind, that our sportsmen were not successful in their hunting excursions, and we procured only three reindeer previous to the migration of these and the other animals from the island, which took place before the close of the month of October, leaving only the wolves and foxes to bear us company during the winter. The full-grown deer which we killed in the autumn, gave us from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and seventy pounds of meat each, and a fawn weighed eighty-four pounds.
On the 1st of October, Captain Sabine's servant, having been at some distance from the ships to examine a fox-trap, was pursued by a large white bear, which followed his footsteps the whole way to the ships, where he was wounded by several balls, but made his escape after all. This bear, which was the only one we saw during our stay in Winter Harbour, was observed to be more purely white than any we had before seen, the colour of these animals being generally that of a dirtyish yellow when contrasted with the whiteness of the ice and snow.