the
midnight sun
said the doctor . But in the intervals between the squalls the sun came out warmly , the snow melted aloft , and was rapidly swept from the deck . Three days passed like this , during which careful , slow progress had to be made , for it was early in the year yet , and June meant a month when the ice was still packed heavily and had not had time to break up and disperse , so that in even this brief time the _ Hvalross _ had sailed from summer back , as it were , into winter . Then the wind dropped , the sea grew calm , and the vessel lay rolling slowly in the heavy swell , apparently with night coming on , which seemed the more strange , for evening by evening it had grown lighter , and but for the clouds Steve 's great desire would have been gratified , and he would have seen the midnight sun . On this particular evening , as they lay rolling there , a dense fog had settled down upon the sea , producing the aforesaid darkness ; and though this thick gloom was somewhat modified by what seemed to be a dim reflection as of light trying to force its way through , the mist was so dense that the fore part of the vessel was invisible from by the wheel , as the boy stood with the captain and Dr Handscombe waiting for the fog to lift . A man had been sent up to the crow 's - nest ; but the fog was more dense there than below , and he had descended . `` This means ice close by somewhere , eh , Lowe ? ''