moons. I have also seen part of a new ring above the usual one,
meeting it at a tangent directly above the moon. As is well known,
these various ring formations round the sun, as well as round the
moon, are produced by the refraction of rays of light by minute ice
crystals floating in the air.

"We looked for pressure with full moon and springtide on 23d of
November; but then, and for several days afterwards, the ice was
quite quiet. On the afternoon of Saturday, the 25th, however, its
distant roar was heard from the south, and we have heard it from
the same direction every day since. This morning it was very loud,
and came gradually nearer. At 9 o'clock it was quite close to us,
and this evening we hear it near us again. It seems, however, as if
we had now got out of the groove to which the pressure principally
confines itself. We were regularly in it before. The ice round us
is perfectly quiet. The probability is that the last severe pressure
packed it very tight about us, and that the cold since has frozen it
into such a thick, strong mass that it offers great resistance, while
the weaker ice in other places yields to the pressure. The depth of the
sea is increasing steadily, and we are drifting north. This evening
Hansen has worked out the observations of the day before yesterday,
and finds that we are in 79 deg. 11' north latitude. That is good, and the
way we ought to get on. It is the most northern point we have reached
yet, and to-day we are in all likelihood still farther north. We
have made good way these last days, and the increasing depth seems
to indicate a happy change in the direction of our drift. Have we,
perhaps, really found the right road at last? We are drifting about 5'
a day. The most satisfactory thing is that there has not been much
wind lately, especially not the last two days; yesterday it was only
1 metre per second; to-day is perfectly still, and yet the depth has
increased 21 fathoms (40 m.) in these two days. It seems as if there
were a northerly current, after all. No doubt many disappointments
await us yet; but why not rejoice while fortune smiles?

"Tuesday, November 28th. The disappointment lost no time in
coming. There had been a mistake either in the observation or in
Hansen's calculations. An altitude of Jupiter taken yesterday evening
shows us to be in 76 deg. 36' north latitude. The soundings to-day showed
74 fathoms (142 m.) of water, or about the same as yesterday, and the
sou