By September all their arrangements for spending the winter on the ship were completed, and with the material which would be required for the preliminary sledge expeditions to the north, and the establishment of food depôts, all on shore, the explorers made merry on the evening of the 7th in discussing the achievements which would result from the working out of their plans. The difficulties which beset other explorers, often from the very commencement of their journeys, had not been experienced by them, and now, with their vessel almost as high to the north as any vessel had yet been, with their complete outfit at one of the most northerly stations yet established, and with everything snug and secure for the winter, it is not surprising that they should have allowed their enthusiasm to run away with them. It was the first time that Italy had entered into the contest of winning fame from the mysteries of the Arctic, and the outlook was so rosy that it almost appeared as if they were going to signalise the fact by carrying the flag to the Pole itself and showing to the world that the all-conquering spirit of ancient Rome still animated the race. Men of colder temperaments, the sons of the cold-blooded North, would probably have postponed their rejoicings until the battle had been won, but the enthusiasm of the South needed more than the gloom of an approaching Arctic winter to subdue it. Wherefore the Arctic moved, and the children of the South learned in a few brief hours something of the power and might and majesty of the realms they had come to conquer. An ice-floe, drifting in the sea beyond the bay, caught the edge of the shore ice, in which the _Stella Polare_ lay at rest, as it passed. The shore ice groaned at the strain, and along its length there ran a ridge of hummock ice as the pressure sought relief. The line of the pressure passed through the spot where the _Stella Polare_ was made fast. The hummock rose against her bows and forced her ninety feet away from where she had been, while, at the same moment, an increase in the pressure caught her by the sides, heeled her over, and cracked her timbers till those on board rushed to the deck under the belief that the vessel was about to collapse. The rigging of the foremast was torn away, the planks of the exposed side showed spaces of three inches between them, and water poured in so rapidly to the holds that it was feared the ship would go down. The hand-pumps were manned and worked, while the fires were lit so as to get up steam and set the steam-pumps going, every one else, who was not required for these jobs, working with might and main to get all stores and provisions out of the ship and on to the ice, lest she went down and left them stranded and foodless. The glamour of the evening before was as a dream; the gloom of the present was a stern reality to which they had awakened. The Arctic was giving a characteristic and rugged greeting to the visitors from the South.