The crews were in excellent health, and every care was taken to preserve it. Regulations were made, in the allowances both of bread and meat: as a preservative against scurvy, the men were allowed a quantity of vinegar with their meat, and they, every day, took a portion of lime-juice and sugar. The next care was for the minds of the men, the health of which Captain Parry wisely considered to have no small influence on that of the body. This excellent officer, anxious for their amusement during the long and tedious interval of winter, proposed, that a play should occasionally be got up on board the Hecla. He considered this to be the readiest means of preserving, among the crews, that cheerfulness and good-humour which had hitherto subsisted. The proposal was readily seconded by the officers of both ships: Lieutenant Beechey was consequently elected stage-manager, and the first performance was fixed for the 5th of November. In order still further to promote good-humour, and to furnish amusing occupation, a weekly newspaper was set on foot, called the "North Georgia Gazette, and Winter Chronicle," of which Captain Sabine undertook to be the editor, under a promise that it should be supported by original contributions from the officers of the two ships. On the 4th of November the sun sank beneath the horizon, not to appear again above it for the space of ninety-six days. On the 5th the theatre was opened, with the farce of "Miss in her Teens;" and Captain Parry found so much benefit accrue to his men, from the amusement which this kind of spectacle afforded them, and with the occupation of fitting up the theatre and taking it down again, that the dramatic representations were continued through the whole winter, and were performed and witnessed with equal pleasure, even when the cold upon the stage was intense. The sinking of the sun below the horizon, for so long a period, seemed to occasion a painful sensation to the animals, inhabitants of the island, as well as to the human beings who had sought a temporary asylum on it: for, from that time, the wolves began to approach the ships, as if drawn thither by a melancholy sympathy; and they often howled, most piteously, for many successive hours. They, however, seldom appeared in greater numbers than two or three together; and it was somewhat extraordinary, that although the crews of both vessels were, for many weeks, intent on killing or catching some of them, they never could succeed. Only one bear was seen during the whole winter: it was of the white kind, and had tracked Captain Sabine's servant quite to the ships; but, being there saluted by a volley of balls, it ran off and escaped. The circumstances under which the crews of these vessels were situated, being such as had never before occurred, it cannot be uninteresting to know in what manner they passed their time during three months of nearly total darkness, and in the midst of a severe winter.