Second Autumn in the Ice. 465 



there is no doubt as to the future ; we see it dawning 

 bright in the west, beyond the Arctic night." 



"Sunday, September 23rd. It was a year yesterday 

 since we made fast for the first time to the great 

 hummock in the ice. Hansen improved the occasion 

 by making a chart of our drift for the year. It does 



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not look so very bad, though the distance is not great, 

 the direction is almost exactly what I had expected. 

 But more of this to-morrow ; it is so late that I cannot 

 write about it now. The nights are turning darker and 

 darker ; winter is settling" down upon us." 



"Tuesday, September 25th. I have been looking 

 more carefully at the calculation of our last year's drift. 

 If we reckon from the place where we were shut in on 

 the 2 2nd of September last year, to our position on the 

 22rd of September this year, the distance we have drifted 

 is 189 miles, equal to 3 9' lat. Reckoning from the 

 same place, but to the farthest north point we reached 

 in summer (July i6th), makes the drift 225 miles, or 

 3 46'. But if we reckon from our most southern point 

 in the autumn of last year (November 7th), to our 

 most northern point this summer, then the drift is 

 305 miles, or 5 5'. We got fully 4 north, from 77 43' 

 to 81 53'. To give the course of the drift is a difficult 

 task in these latitudes, as there is a perceptible deviation 

 of the compass with every degree of longitude as one 

 passes east or west ; the change, of course, given in 

 degrees will be almost exactly the same as the number 



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