This travelling by night and sleeping by day so completely
inverted the natural order of things, that it was difficult to persuade
ourselves of the reality. Even the officers and myself, who were all
furnished with pocket chronometers, could not always bear in mind at
what part of the twenty-four hours we had arrived; and there were
several of the men who declared, and I believe truly, that they, never
knew night from day during the whole excursion.[020]
When we rose in the evening, we commenced our day by prayers, after
which we took off our fur sleeping-dresses and put on those for
travelling; the former being made of camlet, lined with racoon-skin, and
the latter of strong blue box-cloth. We made a point of always putting
on the same stockings and boots for travelling in, whether they dried
during the day or not; and I believe it was only in five or six
instances, at the most, that they were not either wet or hard-frozen.
This, indeed, was of no consequence, beyond the discomforture of first
putting them on in this state, as they were sure to be thoroughly wet in
a quarter of an hour after commencing our journey; while, on the other
hand, it was of vital importance to keep dry things for sleeping in.
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