One day soon after this, I felt exceedingly drowsy, and fell into
a sound sleep. But it seemed that I was almost immediately
aroused by my father's vigorous shaking of me by the shoulder and
saying: "Olaf, awaken; there is land in sight!"

I sprang to my feet, and oh! joy unspeakable! There, far in the
distance, yet directly in our path, were lands jutting boldly
into the sea. The shore-line stretched far away to the right of
us, as far as the eye could see, and all along the sandy beach
were waves breaking into choppy foam, receding, then going
forward again, ever chanting in monotonous thunder tones the song
of the deep. The banks were covered with trees and vegetation.

I cannot express my feeling of exultation at this discovery. My
father stood motionless, with his hand on the tiller, looking
straight ahead, pouring out his heart in thankful prayer and
thanksgiving to the gods Odin and Thor.

In the meantime, a net which we found in the stowage had been
cast, and we caught a few fish that materially added to our
dwindling stock of provisions.

The compass, which we had fastened back in its place, in fear of
another storm, was still pointing due north, and moving on its
pivot, just as it had at Stockholm. The dipping of the needle had
ceased. What could this mean? Then, too, our many days of sailing
had certainly carried us far past the North Pole. And yet the
needle continued to point north. We were sorely perplexed, for
surely our direction was now south.[14]