"I do not know if this begins to give any impression of great
sufferings and privations. I am lying in my berth, writing, reading,
and dreaming. It is always a curious feeling to write for the first
time the number of a New Year. Not till then does one grasp the fact
that the old year is a thing of the past; the new one is here, and one
must prepare to wrestle with it. Who knows what it is bringing? Good
and evil, no doubt, but most good. It cannot but be that we shall go
forward towards our goal and towards home.

"'Life is rich and wreathed in roses;
Gaze forth into a world of dreams.'

"Yes; lead us, if not to our goal--that would be too early--at least
towards it; strengthen our hope; but perhaps--no, no perhaps. These
brave boys of mine deserve to succeed. There is not a doubt in their
minds. Each one's whole heart is set on getting north. I can read
it in their faces--it shines from every eye. There is one sigh of
disappointment every time that we hear that we are drifting south, one
sigh of relief when we begin to go north again, to the unknown. And
it is in me and my theories that they trust. What if I have been
mistaken, and am leading them astray? Oh, I could not help myself! We
are the tools of powers beyond us. We are born under lucky or unlucky
stars. Till now I have lived under a lucky one; is its light to be
darkened? I am superstitious, no doubt, but I believe in my star. And
Norway, our fatherland, what has the old year brought to thee, and
what is the new year bringing? Vain to think of that; but I look
at our pictures, the gifts of Werenskjoeld, Munthe, Kitty Kielland,
Skredsvig, Hansteen, Eilif Pettersen, and I am at home, at home!

"Wednesday, January 3d. The old lane about 1300 feet ahead of the Fram
has opened again--a large rift, with a coating of ice and rime. As
soon as ice is formed in this temperature the frost forces it to throw
out its salinity on the surface, and this itself freezes into pretty
salt flowers, resembling hoar-frost. The temperature is between 38 deg.
Fahr. and 40 deg. Fahr. below zero (-39 deg. C. to -40 deg. C), but when there
is added to this a biting wind, with a velocity of from 9 to 16 feet
per second, it must be allowed that it is rather 'cool in the shade.'

"Sverdrup and I agreed to-day that the Christmas holidays had better
stop now and the usual life begin again; too much idleness is not good
for us. It cannot be called a full nor a