"There has been a good deal of ice-pressure in different directions
to-day. Oddly enough, a meridian altitude of the sun gave 79 deg. 45'. We
have therefore drifted only 8' southward during the four days since
March 4th. This slow drift is remarkable in spite of the high winds. If
there should be land to the north? I begin more and more to speculate
on this possibility. Land to the north would explain at once our not
progressing northward, and the slowness of our southward drift. But
it may also possibly arise from the fact of the ice being so closely
packed together, and frozen so thick and massive. It seems strange
to me that there is so much northwest wind, and hardly any from the
northeast, though the latter is what the rotation of the earth would
lead one to expect. As a matter of fact, the wind merely shifts
between northwest and southeast, instead of between southwest and
northeast, as it ought to do. Unless there is land I am at a loss to
find a satisfactory explanation, at all events, of this northwest
direction. Does Franz Josef Land jut out eastward or northward, or
does a continuous line of islands extend from Franz Josef Land in one
or other of those directions? It is by no means impossible. Directly
the Austrians got far enough to the north they met with prevailing
winds from the northeast, while we get northwesterly winds. Does the
central point of these masses of land lie to the north, midway between
our meridian and theirs? I can hardly believe that these remarkably
cold winds from the north are engendered by merely passing over an
ice-covered sea. If, indeed, there is land, and we get hold of it,
then all our troubles would be over. But no one can tell what the
future may bring forth, and it is better, perhaps, not to know.

"Saturday, March 10th. The line shows a drift northward; now, too,
in the afternoon, a slight southerly breeze has sprung up. As usual,
it has done me good to put my despondency on paper and get rid of
it. To-day I am in good spirits again, and can indulge in happy dreams
of a large and high land in the north with mountains and valleys,
where we can sit under the mountain wall, roast ourselves in the sun,
and see the spring come. And over its inland ice we can make our way
to the very Pole.

"Sunday, March 11th. A snow-shoe run northward. Temperature -50 deg.
C. (58 deg. Fahr. below zero), and 10 feet wind from N.N.E. We did not
feel the cold very much, though it was rather bad f