JVE PREPARE FOR THE SLEDGE EXPEDITION 31 



rometer had been falling steadily and rapidly, but at 

 last it has commenced to rise slightly. It now registers 

 about 726 mm. (28.6 inches). The thermometer, as usual, 

 is describing the inverse curve. In the afternoon it rose 

 steadily until it registered —21.3° C. Now it appears to 

 be falling again a little, but the w^ind still keeps exactly 

 in the same quarter. It has surely shifted us by now a 

 good way to the north, well beyond the S3d degree. It 

 is quite pleasant to hear the wind whistling and rattling 

 in the rigging overhead. Alas! we know that all terres- 

 trial bhss is short-lived. 



"About midnight the mate, who has the watch, comes 

 down and reports that the ice has cracked just beyond the 

 thermometer house, between it and the sounding- hole. 

 This is the same crack that we had in the summer, 

 and it has now burst open again, and probably the 

 whole floe in which we are lying is split from the lane 

 ahead to the lane astern of us. The thermograph 

 and other instruments are being brought on board, so 

 that we may run no risk of losing them in the event 

 of pressure of ice. But otherwise there is scarcely 

 anything that could be endangered. The sounding ap- 

 paratus is at some distance from the open channel, on 

 the other side. The only thing left there is the shears 

 with the iron block standing over the hole. 



"Thursday, December 27th. Christmas has come 

 round again, and we are still so far from home. How- 

 dismal it all is ! Nevertheless, I am not melancholy. I 



