A strong sun-glow above
the horizon in the south; yellow, green, and light blue above that;
all the rest of the sky deep ultramarine. I stood looking at it,
trying to remember if the Italian sky was ever bluer; I do not think
so. It is curious that this deep color should always occur along with
cold. Is it perhaps that a current from more northerly, clear regions
produces drier and more transparent air in the upper strata? The color
was so remarkable to-day that one could not help noticing it. Striking
contrasts to it were formed by the Fram's red deck-house and the white
snow on roof and rigging. Ice and hummocks were quite violet wherever
they were turned from the daylight. This color was specially strong
over the fields of snow upon the floes. The temperature has been 52 deg.
Fahr. and 54 deg. Fahr. below zero (-47 deg. and -48 deg. C.). There is a sudden
change of 125 deg. Fahr. when one comes up from the saloon, where the
thermometer is at 72 deg. Fahr. (+22 deg. C.); but, although thinly clad and
bareheaded, one does not feel it cold, and can even with impunity take
hold of the brass door-handle or the steel cable of the rigging. The
cold is visible, however; one's breath is like cannon smoke before it
is out of one's mouth; and when a man spits there is quite a little
cloud of steam round the fallen moisture. The Fram always gives off
a mist, which is carried along by the wind, and a man or a dog can be
detected far off among the hummocks or pressure-ridges by the pillar
of vapor that follows his progress.

"Wednesday, February 7th. It is extraordinary what a frail thing hope,
or rather the mind of man, is. There was a little breeze this morning
from the N.N.E., only 6 feet per second, thermometer at 57 deg. Fahr. below
zero (-49.6 deg. C.), and immediately one's brow is clouded over, and it
becomes a matter of indifference how we get home, so long as we only
get home soon. I immediately assume land to the northward, from which
come these cold winds, with clear atmosphere and frost and bright blue
skies, and conclude that this extensive tract of land must form a pole
of cold with a constant maximum of air-pressure, which will force us
south with northeast winds. About midday the air began to grow more
hazy and my mood less gloomy. No doubt there is a south wind coming,
but the temperature is still too low for it. Then the temperature,
too, rises, and now we can rely on the wind. And this evening it came,
sure en