BY SLEDGE AND KAYAK 305 



have I to commit to these pages? Nothing but the 

 same overpowering longing to be home and away from 

 this monotony. One day just Hke the other, with the 

 exception, perhaps, that before it was warm and quiet, 

 while the last two days there has been a south wind 

 blowing, and we are drifting northward. Found from a 

 meridian altitude yesterday that we have drifted back 

 to 82° 8.4' N., while the longitude is about the same. 

 Both yesterday and the day before we had to a certain 

 extent really brilliant sunshine, and this for us is a great 

 rarity. The horizon in the south was fairly clear yes- 

 terday, which it had not been for a long time; but we 

 searched it in vain for land. I do not understand it. . . . 



" We had a fall of snow last night, and it dripped in 

 here so that the bag became wet. This constant snow- 

 fall, which will not turn to rain, is enough to make one 

 despair. It generally takes the form of a thick layer of 

 new snow on the top of the old, and this delays the thaw. 



" This wind seems to have formed some lanes in the 

 ice again, and there is a little more bird-life. We saw 

 some little auks again yesterday; they came from the 

 south, probably from land. 



" Saturday, July 6th. +3.38° Fahr. (+i°C.). Rain. 



At last, after a fortnio-ht, we seem to have 2:ot the weather 



we have been waitino- for. It has rained the whole nio-ht 



and forenoon, and is still at it — real, good rain: so now, 



perhaps, this everlasting snow will take itself off; it is as 



soft and loose as scum. If only this rain would go on for 

 II.— 20 



