Drifting, not with the current, but in the direction of the prevailing wind, the land of Nova Zembla receded until it faded out of sight and only a desert of ice surrounded them. The frightful ice convulsions which frequently threatened their destruction, determined the men to build a house on the main floe, where supplies of coal, fuel, and provisions were stored. Lieutenant Payer comments on the terrible conditions under which they existed. “One of us, to-day, remarked very truly, that he saw perfectly well how one might lose his reason with the continuance of these sudden and incessant assaults. It is not dangers that we fear, but worse far; we are kept in a constant state of readiness to meet destruction, and know not whether it will come to-day or to-morrow, or in a year. Every night we are startled out of sleep, and, like hunted animals, up we spring to await amid an awful darkness, the end of an enterprise from which all hope of success has departed. It becomes at last a mere mechanical process to seize our rifles and our bag of necessaries and rush on deck. In the daytime, leaning over the bulwarks of the ship, which trembles, yea, almost quivers the while, we look out on a continual work of destruction going on, and at night, as we listen to the loud and ever-increasing noises of the ice, we gather that the forces of our enemy are increasing.” The hours of these dark and disheartening days were passed in taking observations, exercise, and occasional bear and sledge journeys. In spite of this the time crept away with indescribable monotony. During February the ship drifted first northwest and then north, the greatest longitude attained being 71° E., in 79° N.; and the summer of 1873 advanced without any signs of freeing them. [Illustration: A. E. NORDENSKJÖLD _From “The Voyage of the Vega,” Macmillan & Co., Ltd., London_] With sad resignation the officers and crew looked forward to passing another winter in the ice, although plenty of birds, seal, and bears insured them fresh meat, so essential for the preservation of health in high latitudes. [Sidenote: _DISCOVERY OF FRANZ JOSEF LAND_]