332 Chapter VI. 



before. I have no inclination to read, nor to draw, nor 

 to do anything else whatever. Folly ! Shall I try a few 

 pages of Schopenhauer ? No, I will go to bed, though 

 I am not sleepy. Perhaps, if the truth were known, I 

 am longing now more than ever. The only thing that 

 helps me is writing, trying to express myself on these 

 pages, and then looking at myself as it were from the 

 outside. Yes, man's life is nothing but a succession of 

 moods, half memory and half hope." 



" Thursday, January iSth. The wind that began 

 yesterday has gone on blowing all to-day with a velocity 

 of 16 to 19 feet per second, from S.S.E., S.E., and E.S.E. 

 It has no doubt helped us on a good way north ; but it 

 seems to be going down ; now, about midnight, it has 

 sunk to 13 feet; and the barometer, which has been 

 rising all the time, has suddenly begun to fall ; let us 

 hope that it is not a cyclone passing over us, bringing 

 northerly wind. It is curious that there is almost always 

 a rise of the thermometer with these stronger winds; 

 to-day it rose to 13 F. below zero ( 25 C.). A south 

 wind of less velocity generally lowers the temperature, 

 and a moderate north wind raises it. Payer's explana- 

 tion of this raising of the temperature by strong winds 

 is that the wind is warmed by passing over large 

 openings in the ice. This can hardly be correct, at any 

 rate in our case, for we have few or no openings. I am 

 rather inclined to believe that the rise is produced by air 

 from higher strata being brought down to the surface of 



