5;o FARTHEST NORTH 



Then we shall have done wrong in stopping here. Why 

 did we not continue our journey to Spitzbergen ? We 

 should have been at home by now. The eye wanders 

 out over the boundless white plain. Not one dark 

 streak of water — ice, ice! — shut out from the world, 

 from the throbbing life, the life that we believed to be 

 so near. 



" Low down on the horizon there is a strip of blue- 

 gray cloud. Far, far away beyond the ice there is open 

 water, and perhaps there, rocked on long swelling billows 

 from the great ocean, lies the vessel which is to bear us 

 to the familiar shores, the vessel which brings tidings 

 from home and from those we love. 



"Dream, dream of home and beauty! Stray bird, 

 here among the ice and snow you will seek for them all 

 in vain. Dream the golden dream of future reunion ! 



"Tuesday, July 21st. Have at last got a good wind 

 from the north which is sending the ice out to sea. 

 There is nothing but open sea to be seen this evening; 

 now perhaps there is hope of soon seeing the vessel. 



"Wednesday, July 22d. Continual changes and con- 

 tinual disappointments. Yesterday hope was strong ; 

 to-day the wind has changed to the southeast, and 

 driven the ice in again. We may still have to wait a 

 long time. 



"Sunday, July 26th. The vessel has come at last. I 

 was awakened this morning by feeling some one pull my 

 legs. It was Jackson, who, with beaming countenance, 



