THE WINTER NIGHT 389 



always occur along with cold. Is it perhaps that a 

 current from more northerly, clear regions produces 

 drier and more transparent air in the upper strata? 

 The color was so remarkable to-day that one could not 

 help noticing it. Striking contrasts to it were formed 

 by the Fraiiis red deck-house and the white snow on 

 roof and rigging. Ice and hummocks were quite violet 

 wherever they were turned from the daylight. This 

 color was specially strong over the fields of snow upon 

 the floes. The temperature has been 52° Fahr. and 54° 

 Fahr. below zero ( — 47° and —48° C). There is a sud- 

 den change of 125° Fahr. when one comes up from the 

 saloon, where the thermometer is at 72° Fahr. ( + 22'^ C); 

 but, although thinly clad and bareheaded, one does not 

 feel it cold, and can even with impunity take hold of 

 the brass door-handle or the steel cable of the ri2:2:insf. 

 The cold is visible, however; one's breath is like 

 cannon smoke before it is out of one's mouth; and 

 when a man spits there is quite a little cloud of steam 

 round the fallen moisture. The Fra7n always gives off 

 a. mist, which is carried along by the wind, and a man 

 or a dog can be detected far off among the hummocks 

 or pressure-ridges by the pillar of vapor that follows 

 his progress. 



" Wednesday, February 7th. It is extraordinary 

 what a frail thing hope, or rather the mind of man, is. 

 There was a little breeze this morning from the N.N.E., 

 only 6 feet per second, thermometer at 57° Fahr. below 



