July 19.--The health of the sailors is at its minimum. All are anæmic, but their general appearance is as good as at any previous time. They look strong and rugged, and have not lost weight; but their complexion is somewhat pale and yellowish. When they work outside for an hour the pulse runs up to from 120 to 150. In the cabin we are improving, but the Commandant, Arctowski, and Amundsen are making a slow recovery. On our excursions we now see many seal and penguin tracks, and the northern sky gives every promise of soon sending forth the sun. The shades of dawn are first green, then orange-red, followed by a bright yellow, so bright that one almost imagines a sight of the upper rim of the sun. The ice for days has been intensely purple. We have had a few feeble auroras during the past two nights, beginning at about three o’clock and lasting for only a short time. The sky is losing its bright, cheerful and restful blueness, which it has exhibited during the past fortnight of cold and comparative calm. A thin veil of gray is gathering over us, which presages another spell of warm, stormy, and dirty weather. The barometer is very high, the temperature is falling, and to-night there is a wind from the north. All of this, as usual, is an introduction to a wind from a warmer and more humid region,--the north and west. July 21.--Yesterday the temperature was but one degree below zero, and for two days the weather has been warm and stormy. To-day it is again -24° C. A beautiful, clear and cloudless day-- with a cheerful glow of reflected splendour radiating over the northern horizon. At eight o’clock the sky above the sun was a joyous golden; at noon it was crimson. We have not had an observation in twelve days, and are thus unable to determine our exact position; hence it will be impossible to calculate with precision the day of the rising of the sun, after its long and wandering debauch. We saw two white petrels, the first except one which we saw two weeks ago, since the first days of the night. There are no open leads or bands of water-sky.