Outside, the north wind was still blowing, and consequently we were drifting south towards more clement regions. "Wednesday, June 26th. June 24th was naturally celebrated with great festivities. In the first place, it was that day two years since we started from home; secondly it was a hundred days since we left the Fram (not really, it was two days more); and, thirdly, it was Midsummer-day. It was, of course, a holiday, and we passed it in dreaming of good times to come, in studying our charts, our future prospects, and in reading anything readable that was to be found--i.e., the almanac and navigation-tables. Johansen took a walk along the lanes, and also managed to miss a ringed seal, or 'snad,' as we call it in Norwegian, in a pool here east of us. Then came supper--rather late in the night--consisting of blood-pancakes with sugar, and unsurpassed in flavor. The frying over the oil-lamp took a long time, and in order to have them hot we had to eat each one as it was fried, a mode of procedure which promoted a healthy appetite between each pancake. Thereafter we stewed some of our red whortleberries, and they tasted no less good, although they had been soaked in salt-water in Johansen's kayak during the catastrophe of a couple of days ago; and after a glorious meal we turned into the bag at 8 o'clock yesterday morning. "At midday, again, I got up and went out to take a meridian altitude. The weather was brilliant, and it was so long since we had had anything of the kind that I could hardly remember it. I sat up on the hummock, waiting for the sun to come to the meridian, basking in its rays, and looking out over the stretches of ice, where the snow glittered and sparkled on all sides, and at the pool in front of me lying shining and still as a mountain lake, and reflecting its icy banks in the clear water. Not a breath of wind stirred--so still, so still; and the sun baked, and I dreamed myself at home....