334 Chapter VI. 



my aim the first time, bad as things looked shall I not 

 do so this time, too ? If I were superstitious I should 

 feel surer of it ; but even though I am not at all super- 

 stitious, I have a firm conviction that our enterprise 

 must be successful. This belief is not merely the result 

 of the two last days' south wind ; something within me 

 says that we shall succeed ; I laugh now at myself for 

 having been weak enough to doubt it. I can spend 

 hours staring into the light, dreaming of how, when we 

 land, I shall grope my way to the first telegraph station, 

 trembling with emotion and suspense. I write out tele- 

 gram after telegram ; I ask the clerk if he can give me 

 any news from home." 



"' Friday, January igth. Splendid wind with velocity 

 of 13 to 29 feet per second; we are going north at a 

 grand rate. The red, glowing twilight is now so bright 

 about midday, that, if we were in more southern latitudes, 

 we should expect to see the sun rise bright and glorious 

 above the horizon in a few minutes, but we shall have to 

 wait a month yet for that." 



" Saturday, January 2Oth. I had about 600 Ibs. of 

 pemmican and 200 Ibs. of bread brought up from the 

 hold to-day, and stowed on the forecastle. It is wrong 

 not to have some provisions on deck against any sudden 

 emergency, such as fire. 



'Sunday, January 2ist. We took a long excursion 

 to the north-west ; the ice in that direction, too, was 

 tolerably fiat. Sverdrup and I got on the top of a high 



