We regarded, it as our first touch with civilization, and many of the men longed for the rain and fogs of London.
Strong south winds with dull, overcast skies and occasional high temperatures were now our lot till April 7, when the mist lifted and we could make out what appeared to be land to the north.
Although the general drift of our ice-floe had indicated to us that we must eventually drift north, our progress in that direction was not by any means uninterrupted.

We were at the mercy of the wind, and could no more control our drift than we could control the weather.
A long spell of calm, still weather at the beginning of January caused us some anxiety by keeping us at about the latitude that we were in at the beginning of December.

Towards the end of January, however, a long drift of eighty-four miles in a blizzard cheered us all up.

This soon stopped and we began a slight drift to the east.

Our general drift now slowed up considerably, and by February 22 we were still eighty miles from Paulet Island, which now was our objective.