22 FARTHEST NORTH 



majestic; it will open Nirvana's mighty portal, and we 

 shall be swept away into the sea of eternity. 



" Sunday, December 2d. Sverdrup has now been ill 

 for some days; during the last day or two he has been laid 

 up in his berth, and is still there. I trust it is nothing 

 serious ; he himself thinks nothing of it, nevertheless it is 

 very disquieting. Poor fellow, he lives entirely on oat- 

 meal gruel. It is an intestinal catarrh, which he probably 

 contracted through catching cold on the ice. I am afraid 

 he has been rather careless in this respect. However, he 

 is now improving, so that probably it will soon pass off ; 

 but it is a warning not to be over-confident. I went for a 

 long walk this morning along the lane ; it is quite a large 

 one, extending a good way to the east, and being of con- 

 siderable breadth at some points. It is only after walk- 

 ing for a while on the newly frozen ice, where walking 

 is as easy and comfortable as on a well - trodden path, 

 and then coming up to the snow-covered surface of the 

 old ice again, that one thoroughly appreciates for the 

 first time what it means to go without snow-shoes ; the 

 difference is somethino; marvellous. Even if I have not 

 felt warm before, I break out into a perspiration after 

 (Toino- a short distance over the rouoh ice. But what 

 can one do .'* One cannot use snow-shoes ; it is so dark 

 that it is difficult enough to grope one s way about with 

 ordinary boots, and even then one stumbles about or 

 slips down between great blocks of ice. 



" I am now reading the various English stories of 



