THE NEW YEAR, i8gj 6 1 



We are getting on well northward — thirteen minutes 

 since Monday — and the most northern latitude is now 

 reached. It goes without saying that the occasion was 

 duly celebrated with a bowl of punch, preserved fruits, 

 cakes, and the doctor's cigars. 



" Last night we were running with the bags for our 

 lives; to-night we are drinking punch and feasting: such 

 are, indeed, the vicissitudes of fate. All this roarine and 

 crashing for the last few days has been, perhaps, a can- 

 nonade to celebrate our reaching such a high latitude. If 

 that be so, it must be admitted that the ice has done full 

 honor to the occasion. Well, never mind, let it crash on 

 so long as we only get northward. The Fram will, no 

 doubt, stand it now ; she has lifted fully one foot for- 

 ward and fully six inches aft, and she has slipped a 

 little astern. Moreover, we cannot find so much as a 

 single stanchion in the bulwarks that has started, yet 

 to-night every man will sleep fully prepared to make for 

 the ice. 



" Monday, January yth. There was a little jamming 

 of the ice occasionally during the day, but only of slight 

 duration, then all was quiet again. Evidently the ice 

 has not yet settled, and we have perhaps more to expect 

 from our friend to port, whom I w^ould willingly ex- 

 chano-e for a better neio^hbor. 



" It seems, however, as if the ice-pressure had altered 

 its direction since the wind has changed to S.E. It is 

 now confined to the ridges fore and aft athwart the wind; 



