l dark streaks across it.")

One day soon after this, I felt exceedingly drowsy, and fell into a
sound sleep. But it seemed that I was almost immediately aroused by
my father's vigorous shaking of me by the shoulder and saying: "Olaf,
awaken; there is land in sight!"

I sprang to my feet, and oh! joy unspeakable! There, far in the
distance, yet directly in our path, were lands jutting boldly into the
sea. The shore-line stretched far away to the right of us, as far as the
eye could see, and all along the sandy beach were waves breaking into
choppy foam, receding, then going forward again, ever chanting in
monotonous thunder tones the song of the deep. The banks were covered
with trees and vegetation.

I cannot express my feeling of exultation at this discovery. My father
stood motionless, with his hand on the tiller, looking straight ahead,
pouring out his heart in thankful prayer and thanksgiving to the gods
Odin and Thor.

In the meantime, a net which we found in the stowage had been cast, and
we caught a few fish that materially added to our dwindling stock of
provisions.

The compass, which we had fastened back in its place, in fear of another
storm, was still pointing due north, and moving on its pivot, just as it
had at Stockholm. The dipping of the needle had ceased. What could this
mean? Then, too, our many days of sailing had certainly carried us far
past the North Pole. And yet the needle continued to point north. We
were sorely perplexed, for surely our direction was now south.(14)

(14 Peary's first voyage, pages 69 and 70, says:

"On reaching Sir Byam Martin's Island, the nearest to
Melville Island, the latitude of the place of observation was
75 degrees - 09' - 23", and the longitude 103
degrees - 44' - 37"; the dip of the magnetic needle 88
degrees - 25' - 56" west in the longitude of 91
degrees - 48', where the last observations on the shore
had been made, to 165 degrees - 50' - 09", east, at
their present station, so that we had," says Peary, "in sailing
over the space included between these two meridians, crossed
immediately northward of the magnetic pole, and had undoubtedly
passed over one of those spots upon the globe where the needle
would have been found to vary 180 degrees, or in other
words, where the North Pole would have pointed to the south.")

We sailed for three days along the shoreline, then came to the mouth of
a