Lockwood indulged in the following reflections: “How suggestive of home and of the dear ones there! How often do my thoughts wander away to them! Has Providence been equally kind to them as to me? The day with me suggests alternately the past and the future. Will next Christmas find me here, with everything around as auspicious as now, and shall I then be able to look back with satisfaction and self-complacency on my labors along the Greenland coast? Or will the future bring a record of dreams unsatisfied, of efforts unproductive, of labor in vain? My mind is far away with that group at home assembled together and doubtless regretting that the absent one is not of their number. Could I but see them for an hour, or know that all is well with them, I should rejoice, indeed!” The “Lime-Juice Club” gave an entertainment on the same evening, at which Snyder affected Jans to tears by his personation of an Esquimaux lady, and Connell brought down the house as a martinet captain, by exclaiming, when a soldier who had shot himself was brought in: “Very sad affair, very sad, indeed! Charge him with two cartridges expended, Sergeant.” Lieutenant Greely also gave the party as a lecture, “Reminiscences of the Battle of Fredericksburg,” which was interesting and two hours long, though entirely _ex tempore_; and Lockwood was announced to lecture on “Arctic Sledging.” On the 31st, rations of rum were issued to help the men welcome in the new year. They were also to fire a salute with rifles. Fiddles were in full blast, with singing and other marks of hilarity. Lockwood’s lecture on “Arctic Sledging” was given January 3, 1882, and was well received. Being confirmed in his opinion that he was no public speaker, he intended to leave lecturing for others thereafter. On the 9th he took his usual walk, notwithstanding the thermometer was at 60° below zero, and felt the cold chiefly on his nose. It seemed curious to him, that when the thermometer was lowest, the air was stillest. Were it otherwise, he supposed existence in the Arctic would be an impossibility.