below zero.
The fall work ended with the return of Bartlett and his party from Cape Columbia, on November 5th, the other men having all returned before.

By that time the light had disappeared, and it would be necessary to wait for the recurring moons of the long winter night before we could do any more work.
We had gone up there in the arctic noon, had worked and hunted through the arctic twilight, and now the night was upon us--the long arctic night which seems like the valley of the shadow of death.

With nearly all the supplies for the spring sledge journey already at Cape Columbia, with a good store of fresh meat for the winter, and our party all in good health, we entered the Great Dark with fairly contented hearts.

Our ship was apparently safe; we were well housed and well fed; and if sometimes the terrible melancholy of the dark clutched for a moment at the hearts of the men, they bravely kept the secret from each other and from me..