262 Chapter VI. 



not even enough breeze for the mill. We tried letting 

 the clogs sleep on the ice last night, instead of bringing 

 them on board in the evening, as we have been doing 

 lately. The result was that another dog was torn to 

 pieces during the night. It was ' Ulabrand,' the old 

 brown, toothless fellow, that went this time. 'Job' and 

 ' Moses ' had gone the same way before. Yesterday 

 evening's observations place us in 77 43' N. lat. and 

 138 8' E. long. This is farther south than we have 

 been yet. No help for it ; but it is a sorry state of 

 matters ; and that we are farther east than ever before 

 is only a poor consolation. It is new moon again, and 

 we may therefore expect pressure ; the ice is, in fact, 

 already moving ; it began to split on Saturday, and has 

 broken up more each day. The channels have been of a 

 good size, and the movement becomes more and more 

 perceptible. Yesterday there was slight pressure, and we 

 noticed it again this morning about 5 o'clock. To-day 

 the ice by the ship has opened, and we are almost afloat. 

 " Here I sit in the still winter night on the drifting 

 ice-floe, and see only stars above me. Far off I see the 

 threads of life twisting themselves into the intricate web 

 which stretches unbroken from life's sweet morning dawn 

 to the eternal death-stillness of the ice. Thought follows 



O 



thought you pick the whole to pieces, and it seems so 

 small but high above all towers one form. 

 Why did you take this voyage ? . . . . Could I do 

 otherwise ? Can the river arrest its course and run 



