356 Chapter VI. 



ness, this inertia, and find some outlet for my energies. 

 Can't something happen ? Could not a hurricane come 

 and tear up this ice, and set it rolling in high waves 

 like the open sea ? Welcome danger, if it only brings 

 us the chance of fighting for our lives only lets us 

 move onwards ! The miserable thing is to be inactive 

 onlookers, not to be able to lift a hand to help our- 

 selves forwards. It wants ten times more strength of 

 mind to sit still and trust in your theories and let 

 nature work them out without your being able so 

 much as to lay one stick across another to help, 

 than it does to trust in working them out by 

 your own energy that is nothing when you have 

 a pair of strong arms. Here I sit, whining like an 

 old woman. Did I not know all this before I started ? 

 Things have not gone worse than I expected, but on the 

 contrary, rather better. Where is now the serene hope- 

 fulness that spread itself in the daylight and the sun ? 

 Where are these proud imaginings now that mounted 

 like young eagles towards the brightness of the future ? 

 Like broken-winged, wet crows they leave the sun-lit 

 sea, and hide themselves in the misty marshes of 

 despondency. Perhaps it will all come back again with 

 the south wind ; but no I must cm and rummage up one 



O O l 



of the old philosophers again. 



" There is a little pressure this evening, and an observa- 

 tion just taken seems to indicate a drift of 3' south. 



"11 p.m. Pressure in the opening astern. The ice 



