JS FARTHEST NORTH 



to fail now, and meanwhile the southeast wind is 

 whistling above us, and we are continually drifting 

 northward nearer our goal. When I go up on deck 

 and step out into the night with its glittering starry vault 

 and the fiaring aurora borealis, then all these thoughts 

 recede, and I must, as ever, pause on the threshold of 

 this sanctuary — this dark, deep, silent space, this infinite 

 temple of nature, in which the soul seeks to find its ori- 

 o-in. Toilino- ant, what matters it whether you reach 

 your goal with your fir-needle or not ? Everything dis- 

 appears none the less in the ocean of eternity, in the 

 sreat Nirvana; and as time rolls on our names are for- 

 gotten, our deeds pass into oblivion, and our lives flit 

 by like the traces of a cloud, and vanish like the mist 

 dispelled by the warm rays of the sun. Our time is 

 but a fleeting shadow, hurrying us on to the end — so it 

 is ordained; and having reached that end, none ever re- 

 traces his steps. 



" Two of us will soon be journeying farther through 

 this immense waste, into greater solitudes and deeper 

 stillness. 



" Wednesday, January 30th. To-day the great event 

 has happened, that the windmill is again at work for the 

 first time after its long rest. In spite of the cold and 

 the darkness, xAmundsen had orot the cocr- wheels into 

 order, and now it is running as smoothl)- and steadily 

 as gutta-percha." 



We have now constant northeast winds, and we again 



