k at home in Norway just
now that we are sailing straight for the Pole in clear water.' 'No,
they don't believe we have got so far.' And I shouldn't have believed
it myself if any one had prophesied it to me a fortnight ago; but
true it is. All my reflections and inferences on the subject had led
me to expect open water for a good way farther north; but it is seldom
that one's inspirations turn out to be so correct. No ice-light in any
direction, not even now in the evening. We saw no land the whole day;
but we had fog and thick weather all morning and forenoon, so that we
were still going at half-speed, as we were afraid of coming suddenly on
something. Now we are almost in 77 deg. north latitude. How long is it to
go on? I have said all along that I should be glad if we reached 78 deg.;
but Sverdrup is less easily satisfied; he says over 80 deg.--perhaps 84 deg.,
85 deg.. He even talks seriously of the open Polar Sea, which he once read
about; he always comes back upon it, in spite of my laughing at him.

"I have almost to ask myself if this is not a dream. One must have
gone against the stream to know what it means to go with the stream. As
it was on the Greenland expedition, so it is here.

"'Dort ward der Traum zur Wirklichkeit,
Hier wird die Wirklichkeit zum Traum!'

"Hardly any life visible here. Saw an auk or black guillemot to-day,
and later a sea-gull in the distance. When I was hauling up a bucket of
water in the evening to wash the deck I noticed that it was sparkling
with phosphorescence. One could almost have imagined one's self to
be in the south.

"Wednesday, September 20th. I have had a rough awakening from my
dream. As I was sitting at 11 A.M., looking at the map and thinking
that my cup would soon be full--we had almost reached 78 deg.--there
was a sudden luff, and I rushed out. Ahead of us lay the edge of
the ice, long and compact, shining through the fog. I had a strong
inclination to go eastward, on the possibility of there being land
in that direction; but it looked as if the ice extended farther south
there, and there was the probability of being able to reach a higher
latitude if we kept west; so we headed that way. The sun broke through
for a moment just now, so we took an observation, which showed us to
be in about 77 deg. 44' north latitude."

We now held northwest along the edge of the ice. It seemed to me as
if there might be land at no great distance, we sa