

The Winter Night. 359 



drift. To clear this matter up I let the net down in the 

 afternoon, and as soon as it got a little way under the 

 ice the line pointed north-west again, and continued to 

 do so the whole afternoon. How is this phenomenon 

 to be explained ? Can we after all be in a current 

 moving north-west ? Let us hope that the future will 

 prove such to be the case. We can reckon on two 

 points of variation in the compass, and in that case the 

 current would make due N.N.W. There seems to be 

 strong movement in the ice. It has opened and formed 

 channels in several places." 



" Thursday, February 2 2nd. The net-line has pointed 

 west all day till now, afternoon, when it is pointing- 

 straight up and down, and we are presumably lying still. 

 The wind slackened to-day till it was quite calm in the 

 afternoon. Then there came a faint breeze from the 

 south-west and from the west, and this evening the long- 

 dreaded north-wester has come at last. At 9 p.m. it is 

 blowing pretty hard from N.N.W. An observation of 

 Capella taken in the afternoon would seem to show that 

 we are in any case not farther north than 80 11', and 

 this after almost four days' south wind. Whatever can 

 be the meaning of this? Is there dead-water under the 

 ice keeping it from going either forwards or backwards ? 

 The ice to starboard cracked yesterday, away beyond the 

 bear trap. The thickness of the solid floe was 11^ feet 

 (3 '45 metres), but beside this other ice was packed on 

 to it below. Where it was broken across, the floe 



