where the same struggle for
existence. So it ever is. If we penetrate within even the hardest shell
we come upon the pulsations of life, however thick the crust may be.

"I seem to be sitting here in solitude listening to the music of
one of Nature's mighty harp-strings. Her grand symphonies peal forth
through the endless ages of the universe, now in the tumultuous whirl
of busy life, now in the stiffening coldness of death, as in Chopin's
Funeral March; and we--we are the minute, invisible vibrations of
the strings in this mighty music of the universe, ever changing,
yet ever the same. Its notes are worlds; one vibrates for a longer,
another for a shorter period, and all in turn give way to new ones....

"The world that shall be!... Again and again this thought comes back
to my mind. I gaze far on through the ages....

"Slowly and imperceptibly the heat of the sun declines, and the
temperature of the earth sinks by equally slow degrees. Thousands,
hundreds of thousands, millions of years pass away, glacial epochs
come and go, but the heat still grows ever less; little by little
these drifting masses of ice extend far and wide, ever towards more
southern shores, and no one notices it; but at last all the seas of
earth become one unbroken mass of ice. Life has vanished from its
surface, and is to be found in the ocean depths alone.

"But the temperature continues to fall, the ice grows thicker and ever
thicker; life's domain vanishes. Millions of years roll on, and the
ice reaches the bottom. The last trace of life has disappeared; the
earth is covered with snow. All that we lived for is no longer; the
fruit of all our toil and sufferings has been blotted out millions and
millions of years ago, buried beneath a pall of snow. A stiffened,
lifeless mass of ice, this earth rolls on in her path through
eternity. Like a faintly growing disk the sun crosses the sky; the
moon shines no more, and is scarcely visible. Yet still, perhaps,
the northern lights flicker over the desert, icy plain, and still the
stars twinkle in silence, peacefully as of yore. Some have burnt out,
but new ones usurp their place; and round them revolve new spheres,
teeming with new life, new sufferings, without any aim. Such is the
infinite cycle of eternity; such are nature's everlasting rhythms.

"Monday, April 30th. Drifting northward. Yesterday observations
gave 80 deg. 42', and to-day 80 deg. 44 1/2'. The wind steady from the south
and southea