_Sunday, August 9th._—Morning, S. wind slight; afternoon, dead calm; hardly any need to say every one is weary. Ekholm declares that the balloon is losing about 66 lbs. per day; he thinks it able to stand a voyage of from forty to fifty days’ duration. But under the circumstances it is really very little; yet the envelope is solid and well finished. _Monday, August 10th._—Balloon very full although no gas was let in since last Friday (sixty-five yards). Temperature somewhat higher. S. wind, very slight, barometer at a standstill. _4 o’clock p.m._—Wind on land, nil. A pilot balloon launched at 2 o’clock. Rose to 109 yards; direction N. Speed from thirteen to fourteen feet per second. Evening, 7 p.m., S. wind, pretty strong in the upper regions. Then a complete change, the north wind prevailing. What, then, are we going to fail at the last moment? Must we pack up this balloon, ready to take her flight to a land around which so many vain efforts have been made for centuries past? “My kingdom for a horse!” cried Richard III., in one of those struggles in which the human wretch thinks he acquires so much glory by massacring his fellow-man and by spreading death in his path. And what would not the three hardy explorers have given for a breath of favourable wind, which would have enabled them to carry on the struggle they had commenced against the unknown! What bitter reflections came into my mind! In a smiling country, where everything bespeaks work and prosperity, where each one trusts to the future, happy in the labours undertaken, happy in his daily tasks, suddenly there arises this very wind so much longed for here, and in a few minutes the tempest in its blind fury has sown death and ruin where life and wealth were working together! Here science stood in need of a little of this destructive wind, of ever so little, but none came. And possibly, further away, ships were being wrecked and lives destroyed by it. [Illustration: THE BALLOON IN THE SHED DURING ITS DEFLATION.] Oh, for a balloon that could be steered! Why have we not one here? _Friday, August 14th (19th day of inflation), 7 a.m._—The lieutenant has just informed us that a south wind is blowing; in fact it is pretty strong. The gas apparatus is set to work to complete the inflation. The snow is falling gently, but it melts quickly. At nine o’clock Andrée launches a small balloon which takes a northerly course at an elevation of forty to fifty yards, but it immediately turns off to the east as it rises, _then the wind turns due west and we cease to hope_. Our joy was of short duration. Besides, the season is now too far advanced to attempt such a voyage. It is winter. XI The _Fram_ At half-past nine the ice-pilot signalled a three-master off the eastern cape of the Isle of Amsterdam.