302 FA R THE S 2^ NORTH 



evening's observations place us in 77 43' north latitude 

 and 138^ 8' east longitude. This is farther south than we 

 have been yet. No help for it ; but it is a sorry state of 

 matters ; and that we are farther east than ever before is 

 only a poor consolation. It is new moon again, and we 

 may therefore expect pressure ; the ice is, in fact, already 

 moving; it began to split on Saturday, and has broken 

 up more each day. The channels have been of a good 

 size, and the movement becomes more and more per- 

 ceptible. Yesterday there was slight pressure, and we 

 noticed it again this morning about 5 o'clock. To-day 

 the ice by the ship has opened, and we are almost 

 afloat. 



" Here I sit in the still winter night on the drifting 

 ice-floe, and see only stars above me. Far off I see the 

 threads of life twisting themselves into the intricate web 

 which stretches unbroken from life's sweet morninij dawn 

 to the eternal death-stillness of the ice. Thought follows 

 thought — you pick the whole to pieces, and it seems 

 so small — but high above all towers one form. . . . 

 Why did yoii take this voyage ? . . . Could I do other- 

 wise ? Can the river arrest its course and run up 

 hill ? My plan has come to nothing. That palace 

 of theory which I reared, in pride and self-confidence, 

 high above all silly objections has fallen like a house of 

 cards at the first breath of wind. Build up the most in- 

 genious theories and you may be sure of one thing — that 

 fact will defy them all. \\ as I so ver}- sure 1 Yes, at 



