THE XEW YEAR, i8gs 75 



the summer trip may be somewhat ambiguous. The ice 

 keeps quiet ; the cracking in it and in the Frani is due 

 only to the cokl. I have during the last few days ao-ain 

 read Payer's account of his sledge expedition northward 

 throucvh Austria Sound. It is not very encourao-ino-. The 

 very land he describes as the realm of Death, where he 

 thinks he and his companions would inevitably have 

 perished had they not recovered the vessel, is the place 

 to which we look for salvation; that is the region we hope 

 to reach when our provisions have come to an end. It 

 may seem reckless, but nevertheless I cannot imao-ine 

 that it is so. I cannot help believing that a land which 

 even in April teems with bears, auks, and black guille- 

 mots, and where seals are basking on the ice. must be a 

 Canaan, ' flowing with milk and honey,' for two men who 

 have good rifles and good eyes; it must surely yield food 

 enough not only for the needs of the moment, but also 

 provisions for the journey onward to Spitzbergen. Some- 

 times, however, the thought will present itself that it 

 may be very diflicult to get the food when it is most 

 sorely needed ; but these are only passing moments. 

 We must remember Carlyle's words: 'A man shall and 

 must be valiant ; he must march forward, and quit himself 

 like a man — trusting imperturbably in the appointment 

 and choice of the Upper Powers.' I have not, it is true, 

 any " Upper Powers '; it would probably be well to have 

 them in such a case, but we nevertheless are starting, and 

 the time approaches rapidly ; four weeks or a little more 



