The selection of proper means for obtaining artificial light is quite as important as that of heat. Electric light is ideal, but the means for obtaining electricity are not easily transported. Candles are said to be the safest and best for general use; but the illumination of a single candle is so feeble that each man must have one or more in general use. From this it results that candles are posted in all parts of the rooms,--in the bunks and other nooks where a conflagration might easily originate. Hence the danger of a fire by candles is quite as great as that of petroleum lamps, while the light is far inferior to it. A good petroleum lamp is undoubtedly the most practical. But even a petroleum lamp has its drawbacks in polar regions. On the _Belgica_ we had several, and about fifty glass chimneys, all of which were broken during the past few weeks of the antarctic night. We were then bound to utilise the ingenuity of the mechanics on board to make substitutes. The geologist, who is a chemist by profession, made the first trial with glass tubes; this was better than nothing, but the assistant engineer next took the matter in hand, and after a time became quite a lamp specialist. He altered the construction of the lamp and of the burner; made chimneys of glass jelly jars, removing the bottom and placing over all a zinc funnel. On the whole it was a very happy contrivance, and while it was not quite perfect it served the purpose for which it was intended, during the balance of the black night. June 19.--A midwinter and a midnight thaw, with the ice breaking and pressing upon the vessel, is the most dreadful thing which could happen to us now. But it is just this most despairing condition of ice and weather which is threatening us in these darkest days of the midnight. The temperature and the wind for three days have suddenly risen. It is now blowing a gale from the west. The temperature is -2°; the ice is breaking and separating, leaving wide endless leads running northward and southward. Between the gloomy clouds northward there is a faint suggestion of brightness, but this only seems to increase our longing for light. It is dark! dark! Dark at noon, dark at midnight, dark every hour of the day. And thus we jog along day after day, through the unbroken sameness. There is plenty of work close at hand. The weather should be carefully studied; the sky and the frozen sea contain problems for solution. We are in a world unknown, but just at present we care little about our novel position or our future rewards.