The Winter Night. 333 



the earth. It is certain that the higher air is warmer 

 than the lower, which comes into contact with snow and 

 ice surfaces cooled by radiation. Our observations go to 

 prove that such is the case. Add to this that the air in 

 its fall is heated by the rising" pressure. A strong wind, 

 even if it does not come from the higher strata of the 

 atmosphere, must necessarily make some confusion in 

 the mutual position of the various strata, mixing the 

 higher with those below them and vice versa. 



" I had a strange dream last night. I had got home. 

 I can still feel something of the trembling joy, mixed 

 with fear, with which I neared land and the first tele- 

 graph station. I had carried out my plan ; we had 

 reached the North Pole on sledges, and then got down 

 to Franz Josef Land. I had seen nothing but drift-ice ; 

 and when people asked what it was like up there, and 

 how we knew we had been to the Pole, I had no answer 

 to give ; I had forgotten to take accurate observations, 

 and now began to feel that this had been stupid of me. 

 It is very curious that I had an exactly similar dream 

 when we were drifting on the ice-floes along the east 

 coast of Greenland, and thought that we were being 

 carried farther and farther from our destination. Then 

 I dreamed that I had reached home after crossing- 

 Greenland on the ice ; but that I was ashamed because I 

 could give no account of what I had seen on the way I 

 had forgotten everything. Is there not a lucky omen in 

 the resemblance between these two dreams ? I attained 



