Second Autumn in the Ice. 457 



"Thursday, September 6th. 81 137' N. lat. Have 

 I been married five years to-day ? Last year this was 

 a day of victory when the ice-fetters burst at Taimur 

 Island but there is no thought of victory now ; we 

 are not so far north as I had expected ; the north-west 

 wind has come again, and we are drifting south. 

 And yet the future does not seem to me so long and 

 so dark as it sometimes has done. Next September 

 6th, .... can it be possible that then every fetter 

 will have burst, and we shall be sittino- toq;ether 



o o 



talking of this time in the far north and of all the 

 lono-ino- as of something that once was and that will 



O O * O 



never be again. The long, long night is past ; the 

 morning is just breaking, and a glorious new day lies 

 before us. And what is there against this happening 

 next year ? Why should not this winter carry the Frain 

 west to some place north of Franz Josef Land ? . . and 

 then my time has come, and off I go with dogs and 

 sledges to the north. My heart beats with joy at the 

 very thought of it. The w r inter shall be spent in 

 making every preparation for that expedition, and it 

 will pass quickly. 



" I have already spent much time on these prepara- 

 tions. I think of everything that must be taken, and 

 how it is to be arranged, and the more I look at the 



o 



thing from all points of view, the more firmly convinced 

 do I become that the attempt will be successful, if only 

 the Frain can oret north in reasonable time, not too 



O 



