268 Chapter VI. 



afterwards, the ice was quite quiet. On the afternoon of 

 Saturday, the 25th, however, its distant roar was heard 

 from the south, and we have heard it from the same 

 direction every day since. This morning it was very 

 loud, and came gradually nearer. At nine o'clock it was 

 quite close to us, and this evening we hear it near us 

 again. It seems, however, as if we had now got out of 

 the groove to which the pressure principally confines 

 itself. We were regularly in it before. The ice round 

 us is perfectly quiet. The probability is that the last 

 severe pressure packed it very tight about us, and that 

 the cold since has frozen it into such a thick strong mass 

 that it offers o-reat resistance, while the weaker ice in 



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other places yields to the pressure. The depth of the 

 sea is increasing steadilv, and we are drifting north. 



<_> ^ ' o 



This evening Hansen has worked out the observations 



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of the day before yesterday, and finds that we are in 

 79 1 1' north latitude. That is good, and the way we 

 ought to get on. It is the most northern point we have 

 reached yet, and to clay we are in all likelihood still 

 farther north. We have made good way these last clays, 

 and the increasing depth seems to indicate a happy- 

 change in the direction of our drift. Have we, perhaps, 

 really found the right roacl at last ? We are drifting 

 about 5' a day. The most satisfactory thing is that 

 there has not been much wind lately, especially the two 

 last days ; yesterday it was only about 3 feet per second ; 

 to-day is perfectly still, and yet the depth has increased 



