CHAPTER VII 

 THE SPRING AND SUMMER OF 1 894 



So came the season which we at home call spring, the 

 season of joy and budding life, when Nature awakens 

 after her long winter sleep. But there it brought no 

 change ; day after day we had to gaze over the same 

 white lifeless mass, the same white boundless ice-plains. 

 Still we wavered between despondency, idle longing, and 

 eager energy, shifting with the winds as we drift for- 

 ward to our goal or are driven back from it. As before, 

 I continued to brood upon the possibilities of the future 

 and of our drift. One day I would think that everything 

 was going on as we hoped and anticipated. Thus on 

 April 17th I was convinced that there must be a current 

 through the unknown polar basin, as we were unmistaka- 

 bly drifting northward. The midday observation gave 

 80° 20' northeast ; that is, 9' since the day before yes- 

 terday. Strange ! A north wind of four whole days 

 took us to the south, while twenty-four hours of this 

 scanty wind drifts us 9' northward. This is remarkable; 

 it looks as if we were done with drifting southward. 

 And when, in addition to this, I take into consideration 



