h us; but what we do one day is undone the next.

"Monday, February 26th. We are drifting northeast. A tremendous
snow-storm is going on. The wind has at times a velocity of over 35
feet per second; it is howling in the rigging, whistling over the
ice, and the snow is drifting so badly that a man might be lost in
it quite near at hand. We are sitting here listening to the howling
in the chimney and in the ventilators, just as if we were sitting in
a house at home in Norway. The wings of the windmill have been going
round at such a rate that you could hardly distinguish them; but we
have had to stop the mill this evening because the accumulators are
full, and we fastened up the wings so that the wind might not destroy
them. We have had electric light for almost a week now.

"This is the strongest wind we have had the whole winter. If
anything can shake up the ice and drive us north, this must do
it. But the barometer is falling too fast; there will be north
wind again presently. Hope has been disappointed too often; it is
no longer elastic; and the gale makes no great impression on me. I
look forward to spring and summer, in suspense as to what change
they will bring. But the Arctic night, the dreaded Arctic night,
is over, and we have daylight once again. I must say that I see no
appearance of the sunken, wasted faces which this night ought to have
produced; in the clearest daylight and the brightest sunshine I can
only discover plump, comfortable-looking ones. It is curious enough,
though, about the light. We used to think it was like real day down
here when the incandescent lamps were burning; but now, coming down
from the daylight, though they may be all lit, it is like coming into a
cellar. When the arc lamp has been burning all day, as it has to-day,
and is then put out and its place supplied by the incandescent ones,
the effect is much the same.

"Tuesday, February 27th. Drifting E.S.E. My pessimism is justified. A
strong west wind has blown almost all day; the barometer is low,
but has begun to rise unsteadily. The temperature is the highest we
have had all winter; to-day's maximum is 15 deg. Fahr. above zero (-9.7 deg.
C.). At 8 P.M. the thermometer stood at 7 deg. Fahr. below zero (-22 deg.
C.). The temperature rises and falls almost exactly conversely with
the barometer. This afternoon's observation places us in about 80 deg.
10' north latitude.

"Wednesday, February 28th. Beautiful weather to-day, almost