s entirely fresh, and the masses of diatoms sank in it,
but floated on reaching the salt-water below.

"Thursday, July 19th. It is as I expected. I am beginning to know
the ways of the wind up here pretty well now. After having blown a
'windmill breeze' to-day it falls calm in the evening, and to-morrow
we shall probably have wind from the west or northwest.

"Yesterday evening the last cigar out of the old box! And now I have
smoked the first out of the last box I have got. We were to have got
so far by the time that box was finished; but are scarcely any farther
advanced than when I began it, and goodness knows if we shall be that
when this, too, has disappeared. But enough of that. Smoke away.

"Sunday, July 22d. The northwest wind did not come quite up to
time; on Friday we had northeast instead, and during the night it
gradually went round to N.N.E., and yesterday forenoon it blew due
north. To-day it has ended in the west, the old well-known quarter,
of which we have had more than enough. This evening the line [60]
shows about N.W. to N., and it is strong, so we are moving south again.

"I pass the day at the microscope. I am now busied with the diatoms
and algae of all kinds that grow on the ice in the uppermost fresh
stratum of the sea. These are undeniably most interesting things,
a whole new world of organisms that are carried off by the ice from
known shores across the unknown Polar Sea, there to awaken every
summer and develop into life and bloom. Yes, it is very interesting
work, but yet there is not that same burning interest as of old,
although the scent of oil of cloves, Canada balsam, and wood-oil
awakens many dear reminiscences of that quiet laboratory at home,
and every morning as I come in here the microscope and glasses and
colors on the table invite me to work. But though I work indefatigably
day after day till late in the night, it is mostly duty work, and I am
not sorry when it is finished, to go and lie for some few hours in my
berth reading a novel and smoking a cigar. With what exultation would
I not throw the whole aside, spring up, and lay hold of real life,
fighting my way over ice and sea with sledges, boats, or kayaks! It
is more than true that it is 'easy to live a life of battle'; but
here there is neither storm nor battle, and I thirst after them. I
long to enlist titanic forces and fight my way forward--that would be
living! But what pleasure is there in strength when there is noth