As winter approached, the storms obscured the sky and the sun was not often seen. They were not far enough south to lose it altogether, and all through the winter they had the benefit of its presence, though not for many hours at a time. When it did come, however, it came with great magnificence. After a series of storms they saw it rise one morning, and the spectacle is described as gorgeous and beautiful. "The morning was so clear and bright that I absolutely do not know with what to compare it," Nordenskjold wrote. "A faint violet light lay along the horizon and over Cockburn Island, which forms the central point of view from the station. The sky gleams with a darker blue, and across it float long streamers of ribbon-like clouds, which shine and flame in red. But ever in the colours there is something pale, a paleness which predominates with indescribable delicateness of tone in the tints of the horizon, and in the blue and white shades of the stretches of land, which contrast so strongly with the dull brown of our immediate neighbourhood, and even with the sharply defined ice wall of Snow Hill. At about ten o'clock a glowing spot begins to be visible on the horizon, and, presaged by a perpendicular pillar of fire, there rises what would be the orb of the sun, but which, in consequence of refraction, appears to us to be a broad flaming moving belt of fire. On each side of the sun there are two shining, intensely rainbow-coloured belts, forming parts of a ring, which, however, can be seen but imperfectly. The sun rises higher in the heavens and assumes by degrees his ordinary appearance, whereupon these accessory phenomena disappear, together with the moon, whose crescent has been visible in the sky until the last possible moment." The winter passed without misfortune, and with the approach of spring preparations were made for the first long sledge journey. On this, and other journeys, they succeeded in travelling long distances over what was often heavy ice, on two meals a day. The first, which was the more substantial of the two, consisted of pemmican made into a thick porridge-like soup, the nutritious qualities of which were felt even as it was being eaten. This was followed by coffee, meat, biscuits, butter and sugar. On such a meal the men existed and travelled all day, making no stop until the evening, when they had their dinner, consisting merely of pease or lentil soup, meat, chocolate, bread, butter, and, sometimes, bacon. Immediately they had eaten this frugal repast they were in their sleeping-bags and asleep.