300 
THE DRIFT. 
inches; three quarters of an inch less than our meas- 
urements of it a week ago. A thermometer plunged 
two feet deep in a bank of light snow-drift indicated 
-12°. 
February 10. A hazy day; with moonlight, and a 
drizzling fall of broken spiculse following it. Mr. Mur- 
daugh obtained observations for meridian altitude and 
time-sights of Aldebaran: our latitude is 72° 19^, our 
longitude 68° 55^. The winds have been unfavorable 
to the rapidity of our drift, which has been reduced in 
its rate since our observation on the 29th of January 
from five and a quarter to four miles a day. It may 
be that our approach to the narrower parts of the bay 
and the increased cold together have been disturbing 
causes in the movement of the great pack ; but the 
wind has been the most important in its influence. 
" To look at the completely unbroken area which 
shows itself from our mast-head, motion would be the 
last idea suggested. In Lancaster Sound the chang- 
ing phases of the coast gave us a feeling of progress, 
movement, drift — that sensation of change so pleasing 
to one's incomprehensible moral machinery. But here, 
with this circle of impenetrable passive solidity every 
where around us, it is hard to realize that we move. 
But for the stars, my convictions of rest would be ab- 
solute. Yet we have thus traveled upward of three 
hundred miles. I shall not soon forget this inevitable 
marchfwith its alternations of gloomy silence and 
fierce disruptions. 
February 11, Wednesday. Day very hazy, and 
nothing to interrupt its monotony. It requires an ef- 
fort to bear up against this solemn transit of unvary- 
ing time. 
" I will show you how I speiid one of these days — 
