rth by northeast. Our course, however, was ever
tending northward.(12)

(12 In volume II, pages 18 and 19, Nansen writes about the inclination
of the needle. Speaking of Johnson, his aide: "One day--it was November
24--he came in to supper a little after six o'clock, quite alarmed,
and said: 'There has just been a singular inclination of the needle
in twenty-four degrees. And remarkably enough, its northern extremity
pointed to the east.'"

We again find in Peary's first voyage--page 67,--the following: "It had
been observed that from the moment they had entered Lancaster Sound, the
motion of the compass needle was very sluggish, and both this and its
deviation increased as they progressed to the westward, and continued to
do so in descending this inlet. Having reached latitude 73 degrees, they
witnessed for the first time the curious phenomenon of the directive
power of the needle becoming so weak as to be completely overcome by the
attraction of the ship, so that the needle might now be said to point to
the north pole of the ship.")

The sea was serenely smooth, with hardly a choppy wave, and the wind
brisk and exhilarating. The sun's rays, while striking us aslant,
furnished tranquil warmth. And thus time wore on day after day, and we
found from the record in our logbook, we had been sailing eleven days
since the storm in the open sea.

By strictest economy, our food was holding out fairly well, but
beginning to run low. In the meantime, one of our casks of water had
been exhausted, and my father said: "We will fill it again." But, to
our dismay, we found the water was now as salt as in the region of the
Lofoden Islands off the coast of Norway. This necessitated our being
extremely careful of the remaining cask.

I found myself wanting to sleep much of the time; whether it was the
effect of the exciting experience of sailing in unknown waters, or the
relaxation from the awful excitement incident to our adventure in a
storm at sea, or due to want of food, I could not say.

I frequently lay down on the bunker of our little sloop, and looked
far up into the blue dome of the sky; and, notwithstanding the sun was
shining far away in the east, I always saw a single star overhead. For
several days, when I looked for this star, it was always there directly
above us.

It was now, according to our reckoning, about the first of August. The
sun was high in the heavens, and was so bright that I could no longer
see the on