37' 



Chapter VI. 



sealskin jacket and linen outside breeches, and a half- 

 mask to protect the forehead, nose, and cheeks. 



"There has been a good deal of ice-pressure in 

 different directions to-day. Oddly enough, a meridian 

 altitude of the sun gave 79 45'. We have there- 

 fore drifted only 8' southwards during the four days 

 since March 4th. This slow drift is remarkable in 

 spite of the high winds. If there should be land to 

 the north ? I begin more and more to speculate on 

 this possibility. Land to the north would explain at 

 once our not progressing northwards, and the slowness of 

 our southward drift. But it may also possibly arise from 

 the fact of the ice being so closely packed together, 

 and frozen so thick and massive. It seems strange to 

 me that there is so much north-west wind, and hardly 

 any from the north-east, though the latter is what 

 the rotation of the earth would lead one to expect. 

 As a matter of fact, the wind merely shifts between 

 north-west and south-east, instead of between south- 

 west and north-east, as it ought to do. Unless there 

 is land I am at a loss to find a satisfactory explanation, 

 at all events, of this north-west direction. Does Franz 

 Josef Land jut out eastwards or northwards, or does 

 a continuous line of islands extend from Franz Josef 

 Land in one or other of those directions ? It is by no 

 means impossible. Directly the Austrians got far enough 

 to the north they met with prevailing winds from the 

 north-east, while we get north-westerly winds. Does 



