The Winter Night. 329 



1 6 feet per second straight in your face. But now we 

 are certainly drifting fast to the north under Liv's star. 

 After all it is not quite indifferent to me whether we are 

 going north or south. When the drift is northwards 

 new life seems to come into me, and hope, the ever- 

 young, springs fresh and green from under the winter 

 snow. I see the way open before me, and I see the 

 home-coming in the distance too great happiness to 

 believe in." 



" Sunday, January i4th. Sunday again. The time 

 is passing almost quickly, and there is more light every 

 day. There was great excitement to-day when yester- 

 day evening's observations were being calculated. All 

 mjessed that we had come a lono- way north ao-ain. 



o o y o 



Several thought to 79 18' or 20'. Others, I believe, 

 insisted on 80. The calculation places us in 79 19' 

 N. lat. ; 137 31' E. long. A good step onwards. 

 Yesterday the ice was quiet, but this morning there was 

 considerable pressure in several places. Goodness 

 knows what is causing it just now ; it is a whole week 

 after new-moon. I took a long walk to the south-west, 

 and got right in amono- it. Packing beo-an where I 



< * < * o *_> ^j 



stood, with roars and thunders below me and on every 

 side. I jumped, and ran like a hare, as if I had never 

 heard such a thing before ; it came so unexpectedly. 

 The ice was curiously flat there to the south ; the farther 

 I went the Matter it grew, with excellent sledging surface. 

 Over such ice one could drive many miles a day." 



