THE WINTER NIGHT 403 



enervated. Why dwell on such things just now? It will 

 be many a long day before we can see all that again. 

 We are going at the miserable pace of a snail, but not 

 so surely as it goes. We carry our house with us ; but 

 what we do one day is undone the next. 



" Monday, February 26th. We are drifting northeast. 

 A tremendous snow-storm is going on. The wind has at 

 times a velocity of over 35 feet per second ; it is howling 

 in the rigging, whistling over the ice, and the snow is 

 drifting so badly that a man might be lost in it quite 

 near at hand. We are sitting here listening to the howl- 

 ing in the chimney and in the ventilators, just as if we 

 were sitting in a house at home in Norw^ay, The wings 

 of the windmill have been going round at such a rate 

 that you could hardly distinguish them ; but we have had 

 to stop the mill this evening because the accumulators 

 are full, and we fastened up the wings so that the wind 

 might not destroy them. We have had electric light for 

 almost a week now. 



" This is the strons^est wind we have had the whole 

 winter. If anything can shake up the ice and drive us 

 north, this must do it. But the barometer is falling too 

 fast ; there will be north wind again presently. Hope 

 has been disappointed too often ; it is no longer elastic ; 

 and the gale makes no great impression on me. I look 

 forward to spring and summer, in suspense as to what 

 change they will bring. But the Arctic night, the dread- 

 ed Arctic night, is over, and we have daylight once again. 



