362 Chapter VI. 



this evening because the accumulators are full, and we 



o 



fastened up the wings, so that the wind might not 

 destroy them. We have had electric light for almost 

 a week now. 



" This is the strongest wind we have had the whole 

 winter. If anything can shake up the ice and drive 

 us north, this must do it. But the barometer is falling 

 too fast ; there will be north wind again presently. 

 Hope has been disappointed too often ; it is no longer 

 elastic ; and the gale makes no great impression on me. 

 I look forward to spring and summer, in suspense as to 

 what change they will bring. But the Arctic night, 

 the dreaded Arctic night, is over, and we have daylight 

 once again. I must say that I see no appearance of 

 the sunken, wasted faces which this night ought to have 

 produced ; in the clearest daylight and the brightest 

 sunshine, I can only discover plump, comfortable-looking 

 ones. It is curious enough though about the light. 

 We used to think it was like real day down here when 

 the incandescent lamps were burning, but now, coming 

 down from the daylight, though they may be all lit, it 

 is like coming into a cellar. When the arc lamp has 

 been burning all day, as it has to-day, and is then put 

 out and its place supplied by the incandescent ones, 

 the effect is much the same." 



Tuesday, February 2;th. Drifting E.S.E. My 

 pessimism is justified. A strong west wind has blown 

 almost all clay ; the barometer is low, but has begun to 



