CHAPTER VII. 



THE STRING AND SUMMER OF 1894. 



So came the season which we at home call spring, the 

 season of joy and budding life, when nature awakens 

 after her long winter sleep. But there it brought no 

 change ; day after day we had to gaze over the same 

 white lifeless mass, the same white boundless ice-plains. 

 Still we wavered between despondency, idle longing, 

 and eager energy, shifting with the winds as we drift 

 forwards to our o-oal or are driven back from it. As 



O 



before, I continued to brood upon the possibilities of the 

 future and of our drift. One day I would think that 

 everything was going on as we hoped and anticipated. 

 Thus on April i/th I was convinced that there must be 

 a current through the unknown polar basin, as we were 

 unmistakably drifting northwards. The midday obser- 

 vation gave 80 20' N.E., that is 9' since the day before 

 yesterday. Strange ! A north wind of four whole days 

 took us to the south, while twenty-four hours of this 

 scanty wind drifts us 9' northwards. This is remarkable ; 

 it looks as if we were done with drifting southwards. 

 And when, in addition to this, I take into consideration 

 the striking warmth of the water deep down, it seems 



