514 THE VOYAGE OF THE JE ANNETTE. 



showing forty fathoms, indicates no drift, and our lost 

 ground cannot amount to much. 



However, " Every cloud has a silvery lining," for, to 

 console us, we had the sun on our horizon to-day at 

 noon. The last time we saw it was on November 10th, 

 1880 (being then, as on the 9th, raised above the 

 horizon at noon by extraordinary refraction), and our 

 night has therefore been of eighty-seven days. It is 

 worthy of mention, however, that the sun disappeared 

 on the 6th of November, did not come above the hori- 

 zon on the 7th and 8th, and that our night might fairly 

 be called ninety-one clays, as against seventy-one of 

 last year. Well, we are all here, thank God, and as 

 hopeful and reliant as ever. We all look more or less 

 bleached out, and the doctor says we all look care-worn 

 to some extent. But I do not think any men could 

 lead the life we have led for seventeen months, of 

 peril, uncertainty, disappointment, and monotony, with- 

 out showing traces of its effects. 



To-day we commenced with N. W. wind, but it backs, 

 and grows light in so doing, until at midnight it is from 

 east, and the temperature falls to a disagreeably low 

 figure ; though between nine p. m. and midnight it 

 jumps up from minus 36.5° to minus 26.5°. I may say, 

 however, with perfect correctness that the cold seems 

 to affect us less this year than it did last, and though 

 our night has been longer now than then, it has passed 

 away with seemingly greater speed. I cannot explain 

 the first fact, because it is contrary to general experi- 

 ence ; the second, however, is easily accounted for by 

 our exemption from pressures and ice movements. Last 

 year we were never easy — jam, smash, jam, smash — 

 until finally we had our stem sprung, and a leaking 

 ship to care for and preserve. This year we have not 



