THE WINTER NIGHT 393 



body woollen shirt, vest, Iceland woollen jersey, a frieze 

 coat, and a sealskin one. I found the temperature quite 

 pleasant, and even perspired a little to-day, too. Both 

 yesterday and to-day I had a red-flannel mask on my 

 face, but it made me too warm, and I had to take it off, 

 though there was a bitter breeze from the north. That 

 north wind is still persistent, sometimes with a velocity 

 of 9 or even 13 feet, but yet we do not seem to be drift- 

 ing south ; we lie in So° north latitude, or even a few 

 minutes farther north. What can be the reason of this } 

 There is a little pressure every day just now. Curious 

 that it should again occur at the moons change of 

 cjuarter. The moon stands high in the '&Vy, and there is 

 daylight now, too. Soon the sun will be making his ap- 

 pearance, and when he does we shall hold high festival. 



"Friday, February i6th. Hurrah! A meridian obser- 

 vation to-day shows 80 i ' north latitude, so that we have 

 come a few minutes north since last Friday, and that in 

 spite of constant northerly winds since Monday. There 

 is something very singular about this. Is it, as I have 

 thought all along from the appearance of the clouds and 

 the haziness of the air, that there has been south wind in 

 the south, preventing the drift of the ice that way, or 

 have we at last come under the influence of a current .f* 

 That shove we got to the south lately in the face of south- 

 erly winds was a remarkable thing, and so is our remaining 

 where we are now in spite of the northerly ones. It would 

 seem that new powers of some kind must be at work. 



