Second Autumn in the Ice. 491 



liLrht around the corona be^an to rock to and fro in large 



O *J <5 



waves over the zenith and the dark central point, 

 whereupon the gale seemed to increase and whirl the 

 streamers into an inextricable tangle, till they merged 

 into a luminous vapour, that enveloped the corona and 

 drowned it in a deluge of light, so that neither it, nor 

 the streamers, nor the dark centre could be seen 

 nothing, in fact, but a chaos of shining mist. Again it 

 became paler, and I went below. At midnight there was 

 hardly anything of the aurora to be seen. 



" Friday, October 26th. Yesterday evening we were 

 n 82 3' N. lat. To-day the Fram is tw r o years old. 

 The sky has been overcast during the last two days, and 

 it has been so dark at midday that I thought we should 

 soon have to stop our snow-shoe expeditions. But this 

 morning brought us clear, still weather, and I went out 

 on a delightful trip to the westward, where there had 

 been a good deal of fresh packing, but nothing of any 

 importance. In honour of the occasion we had a par- 

 ticularly good dinner, with fried halibut, turtle, pork 

 chops \vith haricot beans and green peas, plum-pudding 

 (real burning plum-pudding for the first time) with 

 custard sauce, and wound up \vith strawberries. As 

 usual, the beverages consisted of wine (that is to say, 

 lime-juice, with water and sugar) and Crown malt 

 extract. I fear there was a general overtaxing of the 

 digestive apparatus. After dinner, coffee and honey-cakes, 

 with which Nordahl stood cigarettes. General holiday. 



