372 FARTHEST NORTH 



auks had their nests, as on all such places that we have 

 passed by. We also saw a fox. The rock formation was 

 a coarse-grained basalt ; but by the side of the fjlacier we 

 discovered a mound of loose, half-crumbled argillaceous 

 schist, in which, however, we did not find any fossils. 

 Some blocks which we thought very much like granite 

 were also strewn about.* Everywhere along the beach 

 the glaciers were covered with red snow, which had a 

 very beautiful effect in the sunshine. 



" We were both agreed that it might be possible to 

 winter here, but hoped it was the first and last time we 

 should set foot on the spot. The way to it, too, was so 

 bad that we hardly knew how we should get the sledges 

 and kayaks there, 



" To - day, at last, the change we have longed and 

 waited for so long has come. Last night the southwest 

 wind quieted down ; the barometer, which I have been 

 tapping daily in vain, has at last begun to rise a little, 

 and the wind has gone round to the opposite quarter. 

 The question now is whether, if it keep there, it will be 

 able to drive the ice out again." 



Here comes a great gap in my diary, and not till far 

 on in the winter (Friday, December 6th) do I write: 

 " I must at last try and patch the hole in my diary. 



* I took specimens of the different rock formations, lichens, etc., that 

 we came across ; but in the course of the winter the collection was stolen 

 by the foxes, and I thus brought little home from the tracts north of our 

 winter hut. 



