THE FINAL OBSERVATIONS 131 



While some of us were putting up the tent, others 

 began to get everything ready for the coming observa- 

 tions. A sohd snow pedestal was put up, on which the 

 artificial horizon was to be placed, and a smaller one 

 to rest the sextant on when it was not in use. At 

 11.30 a.m. the first observation was taken. We divided 

 ourselves into two parties — Hanssen and I in one, Hassel 

 and Wisting in the other. While one party slept, the 

 other took the observations, and the watches were of six 

 hours each. The weather was altogether grand, though 

 the sky was not perfectly bright the whole time. A 

 very light, fine, vaporous curtain would spread across 

 the sky from time to time, and then quickly disappear 

 again. This film of cloud was not thick enough to hide 

 the sun, which we could see the whole time, but the 

 atmosphere seemed to be disturbed. The effect of this 

 was that the sun appeared not to change its altitude for 

 several hours, until it suddenly made a jump. 



Observations were now taken every hour through the 

 whole twenty-four. It was very strange to turn in at 

 6 p.m., and then on turning out again at midnight to 

 find the sun apparently still at the same altitude, and 

 then once more at 6 a.m. to see it still no higher. The 

 altitude had changed, of course, but so slightly that it 

 was imperceptible with the naked eye. To us it ap- 

 peared as though the sun made the circuit of the heavens 

 at exactly the same altitude. The times of day that I 

 have given here are calculated according to the meridian 



