498 FARTHEST NORTH 



forms small waves that ripple and plash against the edge 

 of the ice, the only signs of life in this desert tract. It 

 is like an old friend, the sound of these playful wave- 

 lets. And here, too, they eat away the floes and hollow 

 out their edges. One could almost imagine one's self in 

 more southern latitudes. But all around is wreathed 

 with ice, towering aloft in its ever -varying fantastic 

 forms, in striking contrast to the dark water on which 

 a moment before the eye had rested. Everlastingly is 

 this shifting ice modelling, as it were, in pure, gray 

 marble, and, with nature's lavish prodigality, strewing 

 around the most glorious statuary, which perishes with- 

 out any eye having seen it. Wherefore ? To what end 

 all this shifting pageant of loveliness .f* It is governed by 

 the mere caprices of nature, following out those ever- 

 lasting laws that pay no heed to what we regard as aims 

 and objects. 



" In front of me towers one pressure - ridge after 

 another, with lane after lane between. It was in June 

 the Jcaiinette was crushed and sank ; what if the Frcvm 

 were to meet her fate here } No, the ice will not get 

 the better of her. Yet, if it should, in spite of every- 

 thins:! As I stood q;azin2f around me I remembered 

 it was Midsummer- eve. Far away yonder her masts 

 pointed aloft, half lost to view in the snowy haze. They 

 must, indeed, have stout hearts, those fellows on board 

 that craft. Stout hearts, or else blind faith in a man's 

 word. 



