UNDER TPIE MIDNIGHT SUN. 333 



the ship bears. The snow is soft, and the walking ex- 

 tremely bad. Without any warning one flounders in 

 up to his knees in rifts between chunks, and the shock 

 of the slip and the hauling out of one's legs soon dis- 

 gusts the most zealous walker. 



And yet we cannot find any snow fit to make drink- 

 ing water. Try we ever so carefully, in our choice to 

 take the newest fallen, to seek the crevices where snow 

 may have lodged on other snow, escaping ice contact, 

 the result is the same, with this exception, I almost be- 

 lieve, that the newest fallen is the saltest. Using such 

 snow for drinking or cookhig is out of the question. 



Temperature begins at 20"^, rises to 25° at noon, and 

 falls to 13.5° at midnight. As soon as the sun sets 

 (now somewhere about 10.20 p. m.) the temperature 

 changes quickly. As long as the sun is in sight one 

 can almost see the cinders and ashes settle in the snow. 

 The black absorbs so much heat that it eats its way 

 ilown like magic. Oh, as I have said before, that the 

 snow and ice were only black ! 



Ajrril ^Oth, Friday. — The last day of April. Our 

 total drift, as shown by observations, for the month, 

 amounts to eighty-four and two tenths miles to and fro. 

 Actually made good in a straight line forty-six miles to 

 N. 50° W., — slow progress, and almost disheartening. 

 Still it is an advance, and that is somethino;. 



The sunrise was obscured by fog, but the sun set at 

 11.23, being enormously enlarged by refraction, and 

 having an inverted parhelic segment over it very much 

 smaller than the main disc. This is having daylight with 

 a vengeance. I could not help feeling for those who 

 are obliged to support life (and apparently with com- 

 fort) with much less. 



Chipp observed a flock of about twenty ducks (eiders) 



