374 FARTHEST NORTH 



even if it does not come from the higher strata of the at- 

 mosphere, must necessarily make some confusion in the 

 mutual position of the various strata, mixing the higher 

 with those below them, and vice versa. 



" I had a strange dream last night. I had got home. 

 I can still feel something of the trembling joy, mixed 

 with fear, with which I neared land and the first tele- 

 graph station. I had carried out my plan ; we had 

 reached the North Pole on sledges, and then got down 

 to Franz Josef Land. I had seen nothing but drift-ice; 

 and when people asked what it was like up there, and 

 how we knew we had been to the Pole, I had no answer 

 to give ; I had forgotten to take accurate observations, 

 and now began to feel that this had been stupid of me. 

 It is ver)^ curious that I had an exactly similar dream 

 when we were driftino- on the ice - floes alonor the east 

 coast of Greenland, and thought that we were being car- 

 ried farther and farther from our destination. Then I 

 dreamed that I had reached home after crossing Green- 

 land on the ice; but that I was ashamed because I could 

 give no account of what I had seen on the way — I had 

 forgotten everything. Is there not a lucky omen in 

 the resemblance between these two dreams } I attained 

 my aim the first time, bad as things looked; shall I not 

 do so this time too } If I were superstitious I should 

 feel surer of it ; but, even though I am not at all su- 

 perstitious, I have a firm conviction that our enterprise 

 must be successful. This belief is not merely the result 



