LACK NOTHING BUT CROSS WORD PUZZLES IN ARCTIC

Mah-Jong was within 600 miles of the North Pole last summer, according to Donald McMillan, famous Arctic explorer, who in a recent interview declared that the Chinese game was the most popular on board his ship "Bowdoin", during the whole of its 15 months' cruise to the North.

Describes Typical Day

Captain McMillan described a typical "day" on shipboard during the long and monotonous winter nights, when his boat was anchored off the coast of Greenland. "We used to get up at about 8 o'clock in the morning", he said. "We'd eat breakfast and then change the charts in the magnetic laboratory, which we set up for the purpose of studying terrestrial magnetism and its influence on navigation.

"Two men would be detailed to go ashore to a fresh water pond, which we had discovered, and secure 20 gallons of water. Other members of the crew would take walks along the coasts or pay calls on the two Eskimo encampments which were nearby.

Cribbage for the Conservative

"Luncheon was served about 2 o'clock, at which time there was a sort of twllight, such as America has at about 5 o'clock on a winter morning. The rest of the day it was quite dark. After dinner we read from our library and wrote up our journals.

"In addition to mah jong, which was far and away the most popular game with everyone, we played a lot of cribbage. Fortunately or unfortunately as the case may be our radio brought us no word of cross-word puzzles and we continued in blissful ignorance.

Declares for Radio

"In the evening the whole crew would listen to the radio, which certainly was a blessing. I never would go North again without one. On my trip next summer, on which we intend to establish a permanent station for the study of terrestrial magnetism, I expect to have a much larger and more powerful radio equipment on board."

Mr. McMillan praised the character of the Eskimo race. "Although they are very primitive", he said, "they are unusually helpful on an expedition and excellent and intelligent company".