tion, for I wanted to see what it
was.' I went below and turned in again. At breakfast to-day he had,
of course, to run the gantlet of some sarcastic questions about his
'harmless thunderbolt,' but he parried them adroitly enough.

"Tuesday, August 21st. North latitude, 81 deg. 4.2'. Strange how little
alteration there is: we drift a little to the north, then a little to
the south, and keep almost to the same spot. But I believe, as I have
believed all along, since before we even set out, that we should be
away three years, or rather three winters and four summers, neither
more nor less, and that in about two years' time from this present
autumn we shall reach home. [62] The approaching winter will drift
us farther, however slowly, and it begins already to announce itself,
for there were four degrees of cold last night.

"Sunday, August 26th. It seems almost as if winter had come; the
cold has kept on an average between 24.8 deg. Fahr. (-4 deg. C.) and 21.2 deg.
Fahr. (-6 deg. C.) since Thursday. There are only slight variations in
the temperature up here, so we may expect it to fall regularly from
this time forth, though it is rather early for winter to set in. All
the pools and lanes are covered with ice, thick enough to bear a man
even without snow-shoes.

"I went out on my snow-shoes both morning and afternoon. The
surface was beautiful everywhere. Some of the lanes had opened out
or been compressed a little, so that the new ice was thin and bent
unpleasantly under the snow-shoes; but it bore me, though two of the
dogs fell through. A good deal of snow had fallen, so there was fine,
soft new snow to travel over. If it keeps on as it is now, there will
be excellent snow-shoeing in the winter; for it is fresh water that
now freezes on the surface, so that there is no salt that the wind
can carry from the new ice to spoil the snow all around, as was the
case last winter. Such snow with salt in it makes as heavy a surface
as sand.

"Monday, August 27th. Just as Blessing was going below after his
watch to-night, and was standing by the rail looking out, he saw
a white form that lay rolling in the snow a little way off to
the southeast. Afterwards it remained for a while lying quite
still. Johansen, who was to relieve Blessing, now joined him,
and they both stood watching the animal intently. Presently it got
up, so there was no longer any doubt as to what it was. Each got
hold of a rifle and crept stealthily towards