now the wind was steadily driving larger masses of
ice in past us; and this approach of winter was alarming--it might
quite well be on us in earnest before any channel was opened. I
tried to reconcile myself to the idea of wintering in our present
surroundings. I had already laid all the plans for the way in which
we were to occupy ourselves during the coming year. Besides an
investigation of this coast, which offered problems enough to solve,
we were to explore the unknown interior of the Taimur Peninsula right
across to the mouth of the Chatanga. With our dogs and snow-shoes we
should be able to go far and wide; so the year would not be a lost
one as regarded geography and geology. But no! I could not reconcile
myself to it! I could not! A year of one's life was a year; and our
expedition promised to be a long one at best. What tormented me most
was the reflection that if the ice stopped us now we could have no
assurance that it would not do the same at the same time next year;
it has been observed so often that several bad ice-years come together,
and this was evidently none of the best. Though I would hardly confess
the feeling of depression even to myself, I must say that it was not
on a bed of roses I lay these nights until sleep came and carried me
off into the land of forgetfulness.

Wednesday, the 6th of September, was the anniversary of my
wedding-day. I was superstitious enough to feel when I awoke in the
morning that this day would bring a change, if one were coming at
all. The storm had gone down a little, the sun peeped out, and life
seemed brighter. The wind quieted down altogether in the course of the
afternoon, the weather becoming calm and beautiful. The strait to the
north of us, which was blocked before with solid ice, had been swept
open by the storm; but the strait to the east, where we had been with
the boat, was firmly blocked, and if we had not turned when we did
that evening we should have been there yet, and for no one knows how
long. It seemed to us not improbable that the ice between Cape Lapteff
and Almquist's Islands might be broken up. We therefore got up steam
and set off north about 6.30 P.M. to try our fortune once more. I felt
quite sure that the day would bring us luck. The weather was still
beautiful, and we were thoroughly enjoying the sunshine. It was such
an unusual thing that Nordahl, when he was working among the coals
in the hold in the afternoon, mistook a sunbeam falling thr