 FILE VIII. CHAPTER V. Voyage through the Kharasi, Part II. Thursday August 20th, still foggy weather, new islands were observed on the way back. Sferdrup's high land did not come too much. It turned out to be an island and that a low one. It is wonderful the way things loom up in the fog. This reminded me of the story of the pilot at home in the Drobak Channel. He suddenly saw land right in front and gave the order full speed of stern. Then they approached carefully and found that it was half a bailing can floating on the water. After passing a great number of new islands, we got into open water off Timor Island and steamed in still weather through the sound to the northeast. At five in the afternoon I saw from the crow's nest thick ice ahead which blocked further progress. It stretched from Timor Island right across to the islands south of it. On the ice bearded seals, Foka Barbata, were to be seen in all directions and we saw one walrus. We approached the ice to make fast to it, but the from had got into a dead water and made hardly any way in spite of the engine going full pressure. It was such slow work that I thought I would row ahead to shoot seal. In the meantime the from advanced slowly to the edge of the ice with her machinery still going at full speed. For the moment we had simply to give up all thoughts of getting on. It was most likely indeed that only a few miles of solid ice lay between us and the probably open Timor Sea, but to break through this ice was an impossibility. It was too thick and there were no openings in it. Nordenshold had steamed through here earlier in the year, August 18, 1878, without the slightest hindrance and here perhaps our hopes for this year at any rate were to be wrecked. It was not possible that the ice should melt before winter set in in earnest. The only thing to save us would be a proper storm from the southwest. Our other slight hope lay in the possibility that Nordenshold's Timor Sound farther south might be open and that we might manage to get the from through there in spite of Nordenshold having said distinctly that it is too shallow to allow of the passage of vessels of any size. After having been out in the kayak and boat and shot some seals we went on to anchor in a bay that lay rather farther south where it seemed as if there would be a little shelter in case of a storm. We wanted now to have a thorough cleaning out of the boiler of very necessary operation. It took us more than one watch to steam a distance we could have rowed in half an hour or less. We could hardly get on it all for the dead water and we swept the whole sea along with us. It is a peculiar phenomenon this dead water. We had at present a better opportunity of studying it than we desired. It occurs where a surface layer of fresh water rests upon the salt water of the sea and this fresh water is carried along with the ship gliding on the heavier sea beneath as if on a fixed foundation. The difference between the two strata was in this case so great that while we had drinking water on the surface the water we got from the bottom cock of the engine room was far too salt to be used for the boiler. Dead water manifests itself in the form of larger or smaller ripples or waves stretching across the wake, the one behind the other arising sometimes as far forward as almost amid ships. We made loops in our course, turned sometimes right around, tried all sorts of antics to get clear of it but to very little purpose. The moment the engine stopped it seemed as if the ship were sucked back. In spite of the from's weight and the momentum she usually has we could in the present instance go at full speed till within a fathom or two of the edge of the ice and hardly feel a shock when she touched. Just as we were approaching we saw a fox jumping backwards and forwards on the ice taking the most wonderful leaps and enjoying life. Sverdrup sent a ball from the forecastle which put an end to it on the spot. About midday two bears were seen on land but they disappeared before we got in to shoot them. The number of seals to be seen in every direction was something extraordinary and it seemed to me that this would be an uncommonly good hunting ground. The flocks I saw this first day on the ice reminded me of the crested seal hunting grounds on the west coast of Greenland. This experience of ours may appear to contrast strangely with that of the Vega expedition. Norton should writes of this sea comparing it with the sea to the north and east of Spitzbergen. Another striking difference is the scarcity of warm-blooded animals in this region as yet unvisited by the hunter. We had not seen a single bird in the whole course of the day, a thing that had never happened before to me on a summer voyage in the Arctic regions and we had hardly seen a seal. The fact that they had not seen a seal is simply enough explained by the absence of ice. From my impression of it the region must, on the contrary, abound in seals. Norton Scholdt himself says that numbers of seals, both Fokker Barbatta and Fokker Hispida, were to be seen on the ice in Timor Straits. So this was all the progress we had made up to the end of August. On August 18, 1878, Norton Scholdt had passed through this sound and on the nineteenth and twentieth passed Cape Chelyuskin. But here was an impenetrable mass of ice frozen onto the land lying in our way at the end of the month. The prospect was anything but cheering. Were the many prophets of evil, there is never any scarcity of them, to prove right even at this early stage of the undertaking? No. The Timor Straits must be attempted, and should this attempt fail, another last one should be made outside all the islands again. Possibly the ice masses out there might in the meantime have drifted and left an open way. We could not stop here. September came in with a still melancholy snowfall, and this desolate land with its low rounded heights soon lay under a deep covering. It did not add to our cheerfulness to see winter thus gently and noiselessly ushered in after an all too short summer. On September 2 the boiler was ready at last, was filled with fresh water from the sea surface, and we prepared to start. While this preparation was going on, Sverdrup and I went ashore to have a look after reindeer. The snow was lying thick, and if it had not been so wet we could have used our snowshoes. As it was we tramped about in the heavy slush without them, and without seeing so much as the track of a beast of any kind. A forlorn land indeed. Most of the birds of passage had already taken their way south. We had met small flocks of them at sea. They were collecting for the great flight to the sunshine, and we poor souls could not help wishing that it were possible to send news and greeting with them. A few solitary arctic and ordinary gulls were our only company. One day I found a belated straggler of a goose sitting on the edge of the ice. We steamed south in the evening, but still followed by the dead water. According to Nordenschold's map it was only about twenty miles to time we're straight, but we were the whole night doing this distance. Our speed was reduced to about a fifth part of what it would otherwise have been. At six a.m. September 3 we got in among some thin ice that scraped the dead water off us. The change was noticeable at once. As the fromb cut into the ice crust she gave a sort of spring forward, and after this went on at her ordinary speed and henceforth we had very little more trouble with dead water. We found what, according to the map, was time we're straight, entirely blocked with ice, and we held farther south to see if we could not come upon some other straight or passage. It was not an easy matter finding our way by the map. We had not seen Hovegaard's Islands, marked as lying north of the entrance to time we're straight, yet the weather was so beautifully clear that it seemed unlikely they could have escaped us if they lay where Norden-Schold's sketch map places them. On the other hand we saw several islands in the offing. These however lay so far out that it is not probable that Norden-Schold saw them as the weather was thick when he was here, and besides it is impossible that islands lying many miles out at sea could have been mapped as close to land with only a narrow sound separating them from it. Further south we found a narrow open straight or fjord which we steamed into in order if possible to get some better idea of the lie of the land. I set up in the crow's nest, hoping for a general clearing up of matters, but the prospect of this seemed to recede farther and farther. What we now had to the north of us and what I had taken to be a projection of the mainland proved to be an island, but the fjord wound on farther inland. Now it got narrower, presently it widened out again, the mystery thickened. Could this be time or straight after all? A dead calm on the sea fogged everywhere over the land. It was well nigh impossible to distinguish the smooth surface of the water from the ice and the ice from the snow-covered land. Everything is so strangely still and dead. The sea rises and falls with each twist of the fjord through the silent land of mists. Now we have open water ahead, now more ice, and it is impossible to make sure which it is. Is this time or straight? Are we getting through? A whole year is at stake. No, here we stop. Nothing but ice ahead. No, it is only smooth water with the snowy land reflected in it. This must be time or straight. But now we had several large ice flows ahead, and it was difficult to get on, so we anchored at a point, in a good safe harbor, to make a closer inspection. We now discovered that it was a strong tidal current that was carrying the ice flows with it, and there could be no doubt that it was a straight we were lying in. I rode out in the evening to shoot some seals, taking for the purpose my most precious weapon, a double-barreled, express rifle, caliber 577. As we were in the act of taking a sealskin on board, the boat healed over, I slipped, and my rifle fell into the sea. A sad accident. Peter, Henriksen, and Benson, who were rowing me, took it so to heart that they could not speak for some time. They declared that it would never do to leave the valuable gun lying there in five fathoms of water. So we rode to the Fram for the necessary apparatus, and dragged the spot for several hours, well on into the dark gloomy night. While we were thus employed, a bearded seal circled round and round us, bobbing up its big startled face, now on one side of us, now on the other, and always coming nearer. It was evidently anxious to find out what our night work might be. Then it dived over and over again, probably to see how the dragging was getting on. Was it afraid of our finding the rifle? At last it became too intrusive. I took Peter's rifle and put a ball through its head, but it sank before we could reach it, and we gave up the whole business in despair. The loss of that rifle saved the life of many a seal, and alas it had cost me twenty-eight pounds. We took the boat again next day, and rode eastward, to find out if there really was a passage for us through this strait. It had turned cold during the night, and snow had fallen, so the sea round the Fram was covered with tolerably thick snow ice, and it cost us a good deal of exertion to break through it into open water with the boat. I thought it possible that the land farther in on the north side of the strait might be that in the neighborhood of Actinia Bay, where the vega had lain, but I sought in vain for the cairn erected there by Nordenshold, and presently discovered to my astonishment that it was only a small island, and that this island lay on the south side of the principal entrance to Timor strait. The strait was very broad here, and I felt pretty certain that I saw where the real Actinia Bay cut into the land far to the north. We were hungry now, and were preparing to take a meal before we rode on from the island, when we discovered to our disappointment that the butter had been forgotten. We crammed down the dry biscuits as best we could, and worked our jaws till they were stiff on the pieces we managed to hack off a hard, dried reindeer sheen. When we were tired of eating, though anything but satisfied, we set off, giving this point the name of Cape Butterless. We rode far in through the strait, and it seemed to us to be a good passage for ships, eight or nine fathoms right up to the shore. However, we were stopped by ice in the evening, and as we ran the risk of being frozen in if we pushed on any farther, I thought it best to turn. We certainly ran no danger of starving, for we saw fresh tracks both of bears and reindeer everywhere, and there were plenty of seals in the water, but I was afraid of delaying the from in view of the possibility of progress in another direction. So we toiled back against a strong wind, not reaching the ship till next morning, and this was none too early, for presently we were in the midst of a storm. On the subject of the navigability of Timur strait, Nordenshold writes that, according to soundings made by Lieutenant Pollander, it is obstructed by rocky shallows, and being also full of strong currents, it is hardly advisable to sail through it, at least until the direction of these currents has been carefully investigated. I have nothing particular to add to this, except that, as already mentioned, the channel was clear as far as we penetrated and had the appearance of being practicable as far as I could see. I was therefore determined that we would, if necessary, try to force our way through with the from. On 5th of September brought snow with a stiff breeze which steadily grew stronger. When it was rattling in the rigging in the evening, we congratulated each other on being safe on board. It would not have been an easy matter to row back today. But altogether I was dissatisfied. There was some chance, indeed, that this wind might loosen the ice farther north, and yesterday's experiences had given me the hope of being able, in case of necessity, to force away through this strait. But now the wind was steadily driving larger masses of ice in past us, and this approach of winter was alarming. It might quite well be on us in earnest before any channel was opened. I tried to reconcile myself to the idea of wintering in our present surroundings. I had already laid all the plans for the way in which we were to occupy ourselves during the coming year. Besides an investigation of this coast which offered problems enough to solve, we were to explore the unknown interior of the Taimur Peninsula right across to the mouth of the Chattanga. With our dogs and snowshoes we should be able to go far and wide, so the year would not be a lost one as regarded geography and geology. But no, I could not reconcile myself to it. I could not. A year of one's life was a year, and our expedition promised to be a long one at best. What tormented me most was the reflection that if the ice stopped us now, we could have no assurance that it would not do the same at the same time next year. It has been observed so often that several bad ice years come together, and this was evidently none of the best. Though I would hardly confess the feeling of depression even to myself, I must say that it was not on a bed of roses I lay these nights until sleep came and carried me off into the land of forgetfulness. Wednesday the 6th of September was the anniversary of my wedding day. I was superstitious enough to feel when I awoke in the morning that this day would bring a change if one were coming at all. The storm had gone down a little, the sun peeped out, and life seemed brighter. The wind quieted down altogether in the course of the afternoon, the weather becoming calm and beautiful. The straight to the north of us which was blocked before with solid ice had been swept open by the storm, but the straight to the east where we had been with the boat was firmly blocked, and if we had not turned when we did that evening we should have been there yet, for no one knows how long. It seemed to us not improbable that the ice between Cape Loptiff and Almquist's islands might be broken up. We therefore got up steam and set off north about 6.30 p.m. to try our fortune once more. I felt quite sure that the day would bring us luck. The weather was still beautiful and we were thoroughly enjoying the sunshine. It was such an unusual thing that Nordall, when he was working among the coals in the hold in the afternoon, mistook a sunbeam falling through the hatch on the coal dust for a plank and leaned hard on it. He was not a little surprised when he fell right through it onto some iron lumber. It became more and more difficult to make anything of the land, and our observation for latitude at noon did not help to clear up matters. It placed us at 76° 2 minutes north latitude, or about 14 miles from what is marked as the mainland on Norden-Scholes or Bova's map. It was hardly to be expected that these should be correct as the weather seems to have been foggy the whole time the explorers were here. Nor were we successful in finding Hovegard's islands as we sailed north. When I supposed that we were off them, just on the north side of the entrance to Time War Strait, I saw to my surprise a high mountain almost directly north of us, which seemed as if it must be on the mainland. What could be the explanation of this? I began to have a growing suspicion that this was a regular labyrinth of islands we had got into. We were hoping to investigate and clear up the matter but the thick weather with sleet and rain most inconveniently came on and we had to leave this problem for the future to solve. The mist was thick and soon the darkness of night was added to it so that we could not see land at any great distance. It seemed rather risky to push ahead now, but it was an opportunity not to be lost. We slackened speed a little and kept on along the coast all night in readiness to turn as soon as land was observed ahead. Satisfied that things were in good hands as it was with Sverdrup's watch, I lay down in my berth with a lighter mind than I had had for long. At six o'clock next morning, September 7th, Sverdrup browsed me with the information that we had passed Time War Island or Cape Loptiff at three a.m. and were now at Time War Bay, but with close ice and an island ahead. It was possible that we might reach the island as a channel had just opened through the ice in that direction, but we were at present in a tearing whirlpool current and should be obliged to put back for the moment. After breakfast I went up into the crow's nest. It was brilliant sunshine. I found that Sverdrup's island must be mainland, which, however, stretched remarkably far west compared with that given on the maps. I could still see Time War Island behind me and the most easterly of Almquist's islands lay gleaming in the sun to the north. It was a long sandy point that we had ahead and I could follow the land in a southerly direction till it disappeared on the horizon at the head of the bay in the south. Then there was a small strip where no land, only open water, could be made out. After that the land emerged on the west side of the bay stretching towards Time War Island. With its heights and round knolls this land was essentially different from the low coast on the east side of the bay. To the north of the point ahead of us I saw open water. There was some ice between us and it but the from forced her way through. When we got out right off the point I was surprised to notice the sea suddenly covered with brown clay-y water. It could not be a deep layer for the track we left behind was quite clear. The clay water seemed to be skimmed to either side by the passage of the ship. I ordered soundings to be taken and found, as I expected, shallower water. First eight fathoms, then six-and-a-half, then five-and-a-half. I stopped now and backed. Things looked very suspicious and round us ice-flowers lay stranded. There was also a very strong current running northeast. Constantly sounding we again went slowly forwards. Fortunately the lead went on showing five fathoms. Presently we got into deeper water six fathoms, then six-and-a-half and now we went on at full speed again. We were soon out into the clear blue water on the other side. There was quite a sharp boundary line between the brown surface water and the clear blue. The muddy water evidently came from some river a little farther south. From this point the land trended back in an easterly direction and we held east and northeast in the open water between it and the ice. In the afternoon this channel grew very narrow and we got right under the coast where it again slopes north. We kept close along it in a very narrow cut with a depth of six-to-eight fathoms and in the evening had to stop as the ice lay packed close in to the shore ahead of us. This land we had been coasting along bore a strong resemblance to Yalmal the same low plains rising very little above the sea and not visible at any great distance. It was perhaps rather more underlating. At one or two places I even saw some ridges of a certain elevation a little way inland. The shore the whole way seemed to be formed of strata of sand and clay the margin sloping steeply to the sea. Many reindeer herds were to be seen on the plains and next morning, September 8th I went on shore on a hunting expedition. Having shot one reindeer I was on my way farther inland in search of more when I made a surprising discovery which attracted all my attention and made me quite forget the errand I had come on. It was a large fjord cutting its way in through the land to the north of me. I went as far as possible to find out all I could about it but did not manage to see the end of it. So far as I could see it was a fine broad sheet of water stretching eastwards to some blue mountains far far inland which at the extreme limit of my vision seemed to slope down to the water. Beyond them I could distinguish nothing. My imagination was fired and for a moment it seemed to me as if this might almost be a straight stretching right across the land here and making an island of the Chelyuskan Peninsula. But probably it was only a river which widened out near its mouth into a broad lake as several of the Siberian rivers do. All about the clay plains I was tramping over enormous erratic blocks of various formations lay scattered. They can only have been brought here by the great glaciers of the Ice Age. There was not much life to be seen. Besides reindeer there were just a few willow grouse, snow buntings and snipe and I saw tracks of foxes and lemmings. This farthest north part of Siberia is quite uninhabited and has probably not been visited even by the wandering nomads. However I saw a circular moss heap on a plain far inland which looked as if it might be the work of man's hand. Perhaps after all some samoyed had been here collecting moss for his reindeer but it must have been long ago for the moss looked quite black and rotten. The heap was quite possibly only one of nature's freaks. She is often capricious. What a constant alternation of light and shadow there is in this arctic land. When I went up to the crow's nest next morning, September 9th I saw that the ice to the north had loosened from the land and I could trace a channel which might lead us northwards into open water. I at once gave the order to get up steam. The barometer was certainly low, lower than we had ever had it yet. It was down to 733 millimeters, 28.8 inches. The wind was blowing in heavy squalls off the land and in on the plains the gusts were whirling up clouds of sand and dust. Sferdrup thought it would be safer to stay where we were but it would be too annoying to miss this splendid opportunity and the sunshine was so beautiful and the sky so smiling and reassuring. I gave orders to set sail and soon we were pushing on northwards through the ice under steam and with every stitch of canvas that we could crowd on, Chelyuskin must be vanquished. Never had the Fram gone so fast. She made more than eight knots by the log. It seemed as though she knew how much depended on her getting on. Soon we were through the ice and had open water along the land as far as the eye could reach. We passed point after point discovering new fjords and islands on the way and soon I thought I caught a glimpse through the large telescope of some mountains far away north. They must be in the neighborhood of Cape Chelyuskin itself. The land along which we today coasted to the northward was quite low. Some of it like what I had seen on shore the previous day. At some distance from the low coast fairly high mountains or mountain chains were to be seen. Some of them seemed to consist of horizontal sedimentary schist. They were flat-topped with precipitous sides. Further inland the mountains were all white with snow. At one point it seemed as if the whole range were covered with a sheet of ice or great snow field that spread itself down the sides. At the edge of this sheet I could see projecting masses of rock but all the inner part was spotless white. It seemed almost too continuous and even to be new snow and looked like a permanent snow mantle. Norden-Schold's map marks at this place high mountain chains inland and this agrees with our observations though I cannot assert that the mountains are of any considerable height but when in agreement with earlier maps he marks at the same place high rocky coast his terms are open to objection. The coast is as already mentioned quite low and consists in great part at least of layers of clay or loose earth. Norden-Schold either took this last description from the earlier unreliable maps or possibly allowed himself to be misled by the fog which beset them during their voyage in these waters. In the evening we were approaching the north end of the land but the current which we had had with us earlier in the day was now against us and it seemed as if we were never to get past an island that lay off the shore to the north of us. The mountain height which I had seen at an earlier hour through the telescope lay here some way inland. It was flat on the top with precipitous sides like those mountains last described. It seemed to be sandstone or basaltic rock only the horizontal strata of the ledges on its sides were not visible. I calculated its height at 1,000 to 1,500 feet. Out at sea we saw several new islands the nearest of them being of some size. The moment seemed to be at hand when we were at last to round that point which had haunted us for so long. The second of the greatest difficulties I expected to have to overcome on this expedition. I sat up in the crow's nest in the evening looking out to the north. The land was low and desolate. The sun had long since gone down behind the sea and the dreamy evening sky was yellow and gold. It was lonely and still up here high above the water. Only one star was to be seen. It stood straight above Cape Chelyuskin shining clearly and sadly in the pale sky. As we sailed on and got the cape more to the east of us the star went with it. It was always there straight above. I could not help sitting watching it. It seemed to have some charm for me and to bring such peace. Was it my star? Was it the spirit of home following and smiling to me now? Many a thought it brought to me as the from toiled on through the melancholy night past the northernmost point of the old world. Towards morning we were off what we took to be actually the northern extremity. We stood in near land and at the change of the watch exactly at four o'clock our flags were hoisted and our three last cartridges sent a thundering salute over the sea. Almost at the same moment the sun rose. Then our poetic doctor burst forth into the following touching lines. Up go the flags, off goes the gun. The clock strikes four and low the sun. As the sun rose the cell use control that had so long had us in his power was banned. We had escaped the danger of winter's imprisonment on this coast and we saw the way clear to our goal the drift ice to the north of the new Siberian islands. In honor of the occasion all hands were turned out and punch, fruit and cigars were served in the festively lighted saloon. Something special in the way of a toast was expected on such an occasion. I lifted my glass and made the following speech. Skull my lads and be glad we've passed Chelyuskin. Then there was some organ playing during which I went up to the crow's nest again to have a last look at the land. I now saw that the height I had noticed in the evening which has already been described lies on the west side of the peninsula while further east a lower and more rounded height stretches southward. This last must be the one mentioned by Nordenshold and according to his description the real north point must lie out beyond it so that we were now off King Oscars Bay. But I looked in vain through the telescope for Nordenshold's cairn. I had the greatest inclination to land but did not think that we could spare the time. The bay which was clear of ice at the time of the Vegas visit was now closed in with thick winter ice frozen fast to the land. We had an open channel before us but we could see the edge of the drift ice out at sea. A little farther west we passed a couple of small islands lying a short way from the coast. We had to stop before noon at the northwestern corner of Chelyuskin on account of the drift ice which seemed to reach right into the land before us. To judge by the dark air there was open water again on the other side of an island which lay ahead. We landed and made sure that some straits or fjords on the inside of this island to the south were quite closed with firm ice and in the evening the Fram forced her way through the drift ice on the outside of it. We steamed and sailed southwards along the coast like making splendid way. When the wind was blowing stiffest we went at the rate of 9 knots. We came upon ice every now and then but got through it easily. Towards morning, September 11th we had high land ahead and had to change our course to do east keeping to this all day. When I came on deck before noon I saw a fine tract of hill country with high summits and valleys between. It was the first view of the sort since we had left Vardo and after the monotonous low land we had been coasting along for months it was refreshing to see such mountains again. They ended with a precipitous descent to the east and eastward from that extended a perfectly flat plain. In the course of the day we quite lost sight of land and strangely enough did not see it again nor did we see the islands of St. Peter and St. Paul though according to the maps our course lay close past them. Thursday, September 12th Henricksson awoke me this morning at 6 with the information that there were several walruses lying on a flow quite close to us. By Jove up by jumped and had my clothes on in a trice. It was a lovely morning, fine still weather the walruses guffaw sounded over to us along the clear ice surface. They were lying crowded together on a flow a little to landward from us blue mountains glittering behind them in the sun. At last the harpoons were sharpened guns and cartridges ready and Henricksson, Ewell and I set off. There seemed to be a slight breeze from the south so we rode to the north side of the flow to get to Leeward of the animals. From time to time their sentry raised his head but apparently did not see us. We advanced slowly and soon were so near that we had to row very cautiously. Ewell kept us going while Henricksson was ready in the bow with a harpoon and I behind him with a gun. The moment the sentry raised his head the oars stopped and we stood motionless. When he sunk it again a few more strokes brought us nearer. Body to body they lay close packed on a small flow old and young ones mixed enormous masses of flesh they were. Now and again one of the ladies fanned herself by moving one of her flappers backwards and forwards over her body then she lay quiet again on her back or side. Good gracious what a lot of meat said Ewell who was cook more and more cautiously we drew near. Whilst I sat ready with the gun Henricksson took a good grip of the harpoon shaft and as the boat touched the flow he rose and off flew the harpoon. But it struck too high glanced off the tough hide and skipped over the backs of the animals. Now there was a pretty to-do ten or twelve great weird faces glared upon us at once the colossal creatures twisted themselves round with incredible celerity and came waddling with lifted heads and hollow bellowings to the edge of the ice where we lay. It was undeniably an imposing sight but I laid my gun to my shoulder and fired at one of the biggest heads. The animal staggered and then fell head foremost into the water. Now a ball into another head this creature fell too but was able to fling itself into the sea and now the whole flock dashed in and we as well as they were hidden in spray it all happened in a few seconds but up they came again immediately round the boat the one head bigger and uglier than the other their young ones close beside them they stood up in the water bellowed and roared till the air trembled through themselves forward towards us then rose up again and new bellowings filled the air then they rolled over and disappeared with a splash then bobbed up again the water foamed and boiled for yards around the ice world that had been so still before seemed in a moment to have been transformed into a raging bedlam any moment we might expect to have a walrus tusk or two through the boat or to be heaved up and capsized something of this kind was the very least that could happen after such a terrible commotion but the hurly burly went on and nothing came of it I again picked out my victims they went on bellowing and grunting like the others but with blood streaming from their mouths and noses another ball and one tumbled over and floated on the water now a ball to the second and it did the same henrickson was ready with the harpoons and secured them both one more was shot but we had no more harpoons and had to strike a seal hook into it to hold it up the hook slipped however and the animal sank before we could save it whilst we were towing our booty to an ice flow we were still for part of the time at least surrounded by walruses but there was no use in shooting anymore for we had no means of carrying them off the frown presently came up and took our two on board and we were soon going ahead along the coast we saw many walruses in this part we shot two others in the afternoon and could have got many more if we had had time to spare it was in this same neighborhood that Nordenshold also saw one or two small herds we now continued our course against a strong current southwards along the coast past the mouth of the Chitainga this eastern part of the Taimur Peninsula is a comparatively high mountainous region but with a lower level stretch between the mountains and the sea apparently the same kind of lowland we had seen along the coast almost the whole way as the sea seemed to be tolerably open and free from ice we made several attempts to shorten our course by leaving the coast and striking across for the mouth of the Olaneck but every time thick ice drove us back to our channel by the land on September 14th we were off the land lying between the Chitainga and the Anabara this also was fairly high mountainous country with a low strip by the sea in this respect so I write in my diary this whole coast reminds one very much of Yadarin in Norway but the mountains here are not so well separated and are considerably lower than those farther north the sea is unpleasantly shallow at one time during the night we had only four fathoms and were obliged to put back some distance we have ice outside quite close but yet there is sufficient fairway to let us push on eastwards the following day we got into good open water but shallow never more than six to seven fathoms we heard the roaring of waves to the east so there must certainly be open water in that direction which indeed we had expected it was plain that the Lena with its masses of warm water was beginning to assert its influence the sea here was browner and showed signs of some mixture of muddy river water it was also much less salt it would be foolish I write in my diary for this day September 15th to go into the Olanak now that we are so late even if there were no danger from shoals it would cost us too much time probably a year besides it is by no means sure that the Fram can get in there at all it would be very tiresome business if she went aground in these waters no doubt we should be very much better for a few more dogs but to lose a year is too much we shall rather head straight east for the new Siberian islands now that there is a good opportunity and really bright prospects the ice here puzzles me a good deal how in the world is it not swept northwards by the current which according to my calculations ought to set north from this coast and which indeed we ourselves have felt and it is such hard thick ice has the appearance of being several years old does it come from the eastward or does it lie and grind round here in the sea between the north going current of the Lena and the Timor Peninsula I cannot tell yet but anyhow it is different from the thin one year old ice we have seen until now and west of Cape Chaluskin Saturday, September 16th we are keeping a northeasterly course by compass through open water and have got pretty well north but see no ice and the air is dark to the northward mild weather and water comparatively warm as high as 35 degrees fahrenheit we have the current against us and are always considerably west of our reckoning several flocks of Eiderduck were seen in the course of the day we ought to have land to the north of us can it be that which is keeping back the ice next day we met ice and had to hold a little to the south to keep clear of it and I began to fear that we should not be able to get as far as I had hoped but in my notes for the following day Monday, September 18th I read a splendid day towards the west of Bielkoff Island open sea good wind from the west good progress weather clear and we had a little sunshine in the afternoon now the decisive moment approaches at 12.15 shaped our course north to east by compass now it is to be proved if my theory on which the whole expedition is based is correct if we are to find a little north from here a north flowing current so far everything is better than I had expected we are in latitude 75.5 degrees north and have still open water and dark sky to the north and west in the evening there was ice light ahead and on the starboard bow about seven I thought that I could see ice which however rose so regularly that it more resembled land but it was too dark to see distinctly it seemed as if it might be Bielkoff Island and a big light spot further to the east might even be the reflection from the snow covered Coltelnoy I should have liked to run in here partly to see a little of this interesting island and partly to inspect the stores which we knew had been deposited for us here by the friendly care of Baron Von Toll but time was precious and to the north the sea seemed to lie open to us prospects were bright and we sailed steadily northwards wondering what the morrow would bring disappointment or hope if all went well we should reach Senecoff land that as yet untrodden ground it was a strange feeling to be sailing away north in the dark night to unknown lands over an open rolling sea where no ship no boat had been before we might have been hundreds of miles away in more southerly waters the air was so mild for September in this latitude Tuesday, September 19th I have never had such a splendid sail on to the north, steadily north with a good wind as fast as steam and sail can take us and open sea mile after mile watch after watch through these unknown regions always clearer and clearer of ice one might almost say how long will this last the eye always turns to the northward as one paces the bridge it is gazing into the future but there is always the same dark sky ahead which means open sea my plan was standing its test it seemed as if luck had been on our side ever since the 6th of September we see nothing but clean water as Henriksen answered from the crow's nest when I called up to him when he was standing at the huia later in the morning and I was on the bridge he suddenly said they little think at home in Norway just now that we are sailing straight for the pole in clear water no they don't believe we have got so far and I shouldn't have believed it myself if anyone had prophesied it to me a fortnight ago but true it is all my reflections my inferences on the subject had led me to expect open water for a good way farther north but it is seldom that one's inspirations turn out to be so correct no ice light in any direction not even now in the evening we saw no land the whole day but we had fog and thick weather all the morning and forenoon so that we were still going at half speed as we were afraid of coming suddenly on something now we are almost in 77 degrees north latitude how long is it to go on I have said all along that I should be glad if we reached 78 degrees but Sferedrup is less easily satisfied he says over 80 degrees perhaps 84 degrees 85 degrees he even talks seriously of the open polar sea which he once read about he always comes back upon it in spite of my laughing at him I have almost to ask myself if this is not a dream one must have gone against the stream to know what it means to go with the stream as it was on the Greenland expedition so it is here Dorthvard der Traum Zur Verlekite Her Verde Verlekite, Sum Traum hardly any life visible here saw an och or Black Guillemot today and later a seagull in the distance when I was hauling up a bucket of water on the evening to wash the deck I noticed that it was sparkling with phosphorescence one could almost have imagined oneself to be in the south Wednesday September 20th I have had a rough awakening from my dream as I was sitting at 11 a.m. looking at the map and thinking that my cup would soon be full we had almost reached 78 degrees a sudden luff and I rushed out ahead of us lay the edge of the ice long and compact shining through the fog I had a strong inclination to go eastward on the possibility of there being land in that direction but it looked as if the ice extended farther south there and there was the probability of being able to reach a higher latitude if we kept west so we headed that way we spoke through for a moment just now so we took an observation which showed us to be in about 77 degrees 44 minutes north latitude we now held northwest along the edge of the ice it seemed to me as if there might be land at no great distance we saw such a remarkable number of birds of various kinds a flock of snipe or wading birds met us followed us for a time and then took their way south they were probably on their passage from some land to the north of us we could see nothing as the fog lay persistently over the ice again later we saw flocks of small snipe indicating the possible proximity of land next day the weather was clearer but still there was no land in sight we were now a good way north of the spot where Baron von Toll has mapped the south coast of Sannikov land in about the same longitude so it is probably only a small island and in any case cannot extend far north on September 21st we had thick fog again and when we had sailed north to the head of the bay in the ice and could get no farther I decided to wait here for clear weather to see if progress farther north were possible I calculated that we were now in about 78.5 degrees north latitude we tried several times during the day to take soundings but did not succeed in reaching the bottom with 215 fathoms of line today made the agreeable discovery that there are bugs on board must plan a campaign against them Friday September 22nd brilliant sunshine once again and white dazzling ice ahead first we lay still in the fog because we could not see which way to go now it is clear and we know just as little about it it looks as if we were at the northern boundary of the open water to the west the ice appears to extend south again to the north it is compact and white only a small open rift or pool every here and there and the sky is whitish blue everywhere on the horizon it is from the east we have just come but there we see very little and for want of anything better to do we shall make a short excursion in that direction on the possibility of finding openings in the ice if there were only time what I should like would be to go east as far as Santa Cuff Island or better still all the way to Bennett land to see what condition things are in there but it is too late now the sea will soon be freezing and we should run a great risk of getting frozen in at a disadvantageous point earlier Arctic explorers have considered it a necessity to keep near some coast but this was exactly what I wanted to avoid it was the drift of the ice that I wished to get into and what I most feared was being blocked by land it seemed as if we might do much worse than give ourselves up to the ice where we were especially as our excursion at least had proved that following the ice edge in that direction would soon force us south again so in the meantime we made fast to a great ice block and prepared to clean the boiler and shift coals we are lying in open water with only a few large flows here and there but I have a presentiment that this is our winter harbor great bug war today we play the big steam hose mattresses, sofa cushions everything that we think can possibly harbor the enemies all clothes are put into a barrel which is hermetically closed except where the hose is introduced then full steam is set on it whizzes and whistles inside and a little forces its way through the joints and we think that the animals must be having a fine hot time of it but suddenly the barrel cracks the steam rushes out and the lid bursts off with a violent explosion and is flung far along the deck I still hope that there has been a great slaughter for these are horrible enemies you will try the old experiment of setting one on a piece of wood to see if it would creep north it would not move at all so he took a blubber hook and hit it to make it go but it would do nothing but wriggle its head the harder he hit the more it wriggled and squashed it then said Benson and squashed it was Friday, September 23rd we are still at the same moorings working at the coal an unpleasant contrast everything on board men and dogs included black and filthy and everything around white and bright in beautiful sunshine it looks as if more ice were driving in Sunday, September 24th still coal shifting fog in the morning which cleared off as the day went on when we discovered that we were closely surrounded on all sides by tolerably thick ice between the flows lies slush ice which will soon be quite firm there is an open pool to be seen to the north but not a large one from the crow's nest with the telescope we can still describe the sea across the ice to the south it looks as if we are being shut in well we must even bid the ice welcome a dead region this no life in any direction except a single seal foca fotita in the water and on the flow beside us we can see a bear track some days old we again try to get soundings but still find no bottom it is remarkable that there should be such depth here ug one can hardly imagine a dirtier, nastier job than a spell of coal shifting on board it is a pity that such a useful thing as coal should be so black what we are doing now is only hoisting it from the hold and filling the bunkers with it but every man on board must help and everything is in a mess so many men must stand on the coal heap in the hold buckets and so many hoist them Jacobson is especially good at this last job his strong arms pull a bucket after bucket as if they were as many boxes of matches the rest of us go backwards and forwards with the buckets between the main hatch and the half-deck pouring the coal into the bunkers and down below stands Amundsen packing it as black as he can be of course coal dust is flying over the whole deck the dogs creep into the corners black and tousled and we ourselves well we don't wear our best clothes on such days we got some amusement out of the remarkable appearance of our faces with their dark complexions black streaks at the most unlikely places and eyes and white teeth shining through the dirt anyone happening to touch the white wall below with his hand leaves a black five-fingered blot and the doors have a wealth of such mementos the seats of the sofas must have their wrong sides turned up else they would bear lasting marks of another part of the body and the tablecloth well we fortunately do not possess such a thing in short coal shifting is as dirty and wretched an experience as one can well imagine in these bright and pure surroundings one good thing is that there is plenty of fresh water to wash with we can find it in very hollow on the flows so there is some hope of our being clean again in time and it is possible that this may be our last coal shifting Monday September 25th frozen in faster and faster beautiful still weather 13 degrees of frost last night winter is coming now had a visit from a bear which was off again before anyone got a shot at it end of file 8 file 9 of farthest north volume 1 this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Sharon Riscadal farthest north by Freetav Nansen volume 1 chapter 6 the winter night part 1 it really looked as if we were now frozen in for good and I did not expect to get the sun out of the ice till we were on the other side of the pole nearing the Atlantic Ocean autumn was already well advanced the sun stood lower in the heavens day by day and the temperature sank steadily the long night of winter was approaching that dreaded night there was nothing to be done except prepare ourselves for it and by degrees we converted our ship as well as we could into comfortable winter quarters while at the same time we took every precaution to assure her against the destructive influences of cold, drift ice and the other forces of nature to which it was prophesied that we must succumb the rudder was hauled up so that it might not be destroyed by the pressure of the ice we had intended to do the same with the screw but as it with its iron case would certainly help to strengthen the stern especially the rudder stock we let it remain in its place we had a good deal of work with the engine too each separate part was taken out oiled and laid away for the winter slide valves, piston, shafts were examined and thoroughly cleaned all this was done with the very greatest care Amundsen looked after that engine as if it had been his own child late and early he was down seeing it lovingly and we used to tease him about it to see the defiant look come into his eyes and hear him say it's all very well for you to talk but there's not such another engine in the world and it would be a sin and a shame not to take good care of it assuredly he left nothing undone I do not suppose a day past winter or summer all these three years that he did not go down to caress it and do something or other for it we cleared up in the hold to make room for a joiner's workshop down there our mechanical workshop we had in the engine room the smithy was at first on deck and afterwards on the ice tinsmith's work was done chiefly in the chart room shoemakers and sale makers and various odd sorts of work in the saloon and all these occupations were carried on with interest and activity during the rest of the expedition there was nothing from the most delicate instruments down to wooden shoes and axe handles that could not be made on board the from when we were found to be short of sounding line a grand rope walk was constructed on the ice it proved to be a very profitable undertaking and was well patronized presently we began putting up the windmill which was to drive the dynamo and produce the electric light while the ship was going the dynamo was driven by the engine but for a long time past we had had to be contented with petroleum lamps in our dark cabins the windmill was erected on the port side of the foredeck between the main hatch and the rail it took several weeks to get this important appliance into working order as mentioned on page 72 we had also brought with us a horse mill for driving the dynamo I had thought that it might be of service in giving us exercise whenever there was no other physical work for us but this time never came and so the horse mill was never used there was always something to occupy us and it was not difficult to find work for each man that gave him sufficient exercise and so much distraction time did not seem to him unbearably long there was the care of the ship and rigging, the inspection of sails ropes, etc. there were provisions of all kinds to be got out from the cases down in the hold and handed over to the cook there was ice, good, pure fresh water ice to be found and carried to the galley to be melted for cooking, drinking and washing water as mentioned there was always something doing in the various workshops now Smith Lars had to straighten the longboat davits which had been twisted by the waves in the Kara Sea now it was a hook, a knife, a bear trap or something else to be forged the tin Smith against Smith Lars had to solder together a great tin pail for the ice melting in the galley the meccanition Amundsen would have an order for some instrument or other perhaps a new current gauge the watchmaker, Mogstead would have a thermograph to examine and clean or a new spring to put into a watch the sailmaker might have an order for a quantity of dog harness then each man had to be his own shoemaker make himself canvas boots with thick warm wooden soles according to Sferdrup's newest pattern presently there would come an order to meccanition Amundsen for a supply of new zinc music sheets for the organ these being a brand new invention of the leader of the expedition the electrician would have to examine and clean the accumulator batteries which were in danger of freezing when at last the windmill was ready it had to be attended to, turned according to the wind etc and when the wind was too strong someone had to climb up and reef the mill sails which was not a pleasant occupation in this winter cold and involved much breathing on fingers and rubbing of the tip of the nose it happened now and then too that the ship required to be pumped this became less and less necessary as the water froze round her and in the interstices on her sides the pumps therefore were not touched from December 1893 till July 1895 the only noticeable leakage during that time was in the engine room but it was nothing of any consequence just a few buckets of ice that had to be hewn away every month from the bottom of the ship and hoisted up to these varied employments was presently added as the most important of all the taking of scientific observations which gave many of us an instant occupation those that involved the greatest labor were of course the meteorological observations which were taken every four hours day and night indeed for a considerable part of the time every two hours they kept one man sometimes too at work all day it was Hansen who had the principal charge of this department and his regular assistant until March 1895 was Johanssen whose place was then taken by Nordall the night observations were taken by whoever was on watch about every second day when the weather was clear Hansen and his assistant took the astronomical observation which ascertained our position this was certainly the work which was followed with most interest by all the members of the expedition and it was not uncommon to see Hansen's cabin making his calculations besieged with idle spectators waiting to hear the result whether we had drifted north or south since the last observation and how far the state of feeling on board very much depended on these results Hansen had also at stated periods to take observations to determine the magnetic constant in this unknown region these were carried on at first in a tent specially constructed for the purpose which was soon erected on the ice but later we built him a large snow hut as being both more suitable and more comfortable for the ship's doctor there was less occupation he looked long and vainly for patients and at last had to give it up and in despair take to doctoring the dogs once a month he too had to make his scientific observations which consisted in the weighing of each man and the counting of blood corpuscles and estimating the amount of blood pigment in order to ascertain the number of red blood corpuscles and the quantity of red coloring matter hemoglobin in the blood of each this was also work that was watched with anxious interest as every man thought he could tell from the result obtained how long it would be before the doctor took him among our scientific pursuits may also be mentioned the determining of the temperature of the water and of its degree of saltness at varying depths the collection and examination of such animals as are to be found in these northern seas the ascertaining of the amount of electricity in the air the observation of the formation of the ice, its growth and thickness of different layers of ice the investigation of the currents in the water under it etc etc I had the main charge of this department there remains to be mentioned the regular observation of the Aurora Borealis which we had a splendid opportunity of studying after I had gone on with it for some time blessing undertook this part of my duties and when I left the ship I made over to him other observations that were under my charge not an inconsiderable item of our scientific work were the soundings and dredgings at the greater depths it was such an undertaking that everyone had to assist and from the way we were obliged to do it later one sounding sometimes gave occupation for several days one day differed very little from another on board and the description of one is in every particular of any importance a description of all we all turned out at 8 and breakfasted on hard bread both rye and wheat cheese, dutch clove cheese cheddar, gruyere and miost or goat's whey cheese prepared from dry powder corned beef or corned mutton lunch and ham or Chicago tinned, tongue or bacon cod caviar anchovy roe also oatmeal biscuits or English biscuits with orange marmalade or frame food jelly three times a week we had fresh baked bread as well and often cake of some kind as for our beverages we began by having coffee and chocolate day about but afterwards had coffee only two days a week, tea two and chocolate three after breakfast some men went to the dogs, give them their food which consisted of half a stock fish or a couple of dog biscuits each let them loose or do whatever else there was to do for them the others went all to their different tasks each took his turn of a week in the galley helping the cook to wash up lay the table and wait the cook himself had to arrange his bill of fare for dinner immediately after breakfast and to set about his preparations some of us would take a turn on the flow to get some fresh air and to examine the state of the ice its pressure etc at one o'clock all were assembled for dinner which generally consisted of three courses soup, meat and dessert or soup, fish and meat or fish, meat and dessert or sometimes only fish and meat with the meat we always had potatoes and either green vegetables or macaroni I think we were all agreed that the fare was good it would hardly have been better at home for some of us it would perhaps have been worse and we looked like fatted pigs one or two even began to cultivate a double chin and a corporation as a rule stories and jokes circulated at table along with the Bach beer after dinner the smokers of our company would march off well fed and contented into the galley which was smoking room as well as kitchen, tobacco being tabooed in the cabins except on festive occasions out there they had a good smoke and chat many a story was told and not seldom some warm dispute arose afterwards came for most of us a short siesta then each went to his work again until we were summoned to supper at the clock when the regulation day's work was done supper was almost the same as breakfast except the tea was always the beverage afterwards there was again smoking in the galley while the saloon was transformed into a silent reading room good use was made of the valuable library presented to the expedition by generous publishers and other friends if the kind donors could have seen us away up there sitting round the table at night with heads buried in books or collections of illustrations and could have understood how invaluable these companions were to us they would have felt rewarded by the knowledge that they had conferred a real boon that they had materially assisted in making the from the little oasis that it was in this vast ice desert about half past seven or eight pieces or other games were brought out and we played well on into the night seated in groups round the saloon table one or other of us might go to the organ and with the assistance of the crank handle perform some of our beautiful pieces or Johansson would bring out the accordion and play many a fine tune his crowning efforts were O Susanna and Napoleon's march across the Alps in an open boat at midnight we turned in and then the night watch was set each man went on for an hour their most trying work on watch seems to have been writing their diaries and looking out when the dogs barked for any signs of bears at hand besides this every two hours or four hours the watch had to go aloft or onto the ice to take the meteorological observations I believe I may safely say on the whole the time passed pleasantly and imperceptibly and that we throw in virtue of the regular habits imposed upon us my notes from day to day will give the best idea of our life in all its monotony they are not great events that are here recorded but in their very bareness they give a true picture such and no other was our life I shall give some quotations by diary Tuesday September 26 beautiful weather the sun stands much lower now it was nine degrees above the horizon at midday winter is rapidly approaching there are fourteen and a half degrees of frost this evening but we do not feel it cold today's observations unfortunately show no particular drift northwards according to them we are still in the eight degrees fifty minutes north latitude I wondered about over the flow towards evening nothing more wonderfully beautiful can exist than the arctic night it is dreamland painted in the imaginations most delicate tints it is color etherealized one shade melts into the other so that you cannot tell where one ends and the other begins and yet they are all there no forms it is all faint dreamy color music a far away long drawn out melody unmuted strings is not all life's beauty high and delicate and pure like this night give it brighter colors and it is no longer so beautiful the sky is like an enormous cupola blue at the zenith shading down into green and then into lilac violet at the edges over the ice fields there are cold violet blue shadows with lighter pink tints where a ridge here and there catches the last reflection of the vanish day up in the blue of the cupola shine the stars speaking peace as they always do those unchanging friends in the south stands a large red yellow moon encircled by a yellow ring with red golden clouds floating on the blue background presently the aurora boreala shakes over the vault of heaven its veil of glittering silver changing now to yellow now to green now to red it spreads it contracts again in restless change next it breaks into waving many folded bands of shining silver over which shoot billows of glittering rays and then the glory vanishes presently it shimmers in tongues of flame over the very zenith and then again it shoots a bright ray right up from the horizon until the whole melts away in the moonlight and it is though one heard the sigh of a departing spirit here and there are left a few waving streamers of light, vague as a foreboding they are the dust from the aurora's glittering cloak but now it is growing again new lightning shoot up and the endless game begins afresh and all the time this utter stillness impressive as the symphony of infinitude I have never been able to grasp the fact that this earth will someday be spent and desolate and empty to what end in that case all this beauty is not a creature to rejoice in it now I begin to divine it this is the coming earth here are beauty and death but to what purpose ah, what is the purpose of all these spheres read the answer if you can in the starry blue firmament Wednesday September 27th grey weather and strong wind from the south west Nordal who is cooked today had to haul up some salt meat which rolled in a sack had been steeping for two days in the sea as soon as he got hold of it he called out horrified that it was crawling with animals he let go the sack and jumped away from it the animals scattering round in every direction they proved to be sandhoppers or amphipodi there were pints of them both inside and outside of the sack a pleasant discovery there will be no need to starve when such food is to be had by hanging a sack in the water Benson is the wag of the party he is always playing some practical joke just now one of the men came rushing up and stood respectfully waiting for me to speak to him it was Benson that had told him I wanted him before he had thought of some new trick Thursday, September 28 snowfall with wind today the dog's hour of release has come until now their life on board has been really a melancholy one they have been tied up ever since we left Cabarova the stormy seas have broken over them and they have been rolled here and there in the water on the deck they have half-hanged themselves in their leashes howling miserably they have had the hose played over them every time the deck was washed they have been seasick in bad as in good weather they have had to lie on the spot hard fate had chained them too without more exercise than going backwards and forwards the length of their chains it is thus you are treated you splendid animals who are to be our stay in the hour of need when that time comes you will for a while at least have the place of honour when they were let loose there was a perfect storm of jubilation they rolled in the snow washed and rubbed themselves and rushed about the ice in wild joy barking loudly our flow a short time ago so lonesome and forlorn was quite a cheerful sight with this sudden population the silence of ages was broken it was our intention after this to tie up the dogs on the ice Friday, September 29th Dr. Blessing's birthday in honour of which we of course had a fett, our first great one on board there was a double occasion for it our midday observation showed us to be in latitude 79 degrees five minutes north so we had passed one more degree we had no fewer than five courses at dinner and a more than usually elaborate concert during the meal here follows a copy of the printed menu from menu September 29th 1893 soup a la julienne avec des macaroni dumplings potage des poissons avec des pommes de terre pudding des nordals glace du greenland de la tablea bière de la ringness marmalade and tacta musique à dîner valse mio-sotique minuet des gens hoannes de Mozart les troubadours college hornpipe d'ilites roses de Marta un floater studio marche d'Îleville-Farbac valse des lagoons des Strauss les chansons du Nord du Gamla du Frisca Ack-Absburg-Marche-de-Crawl José Carad's Polska Wartland Wartland Les chassons des chassous Les roses valse de Mithra Fischer's Hornpipe Tramvalse des Milouchers Hemlonsang à la Miserable Diamantin & Perlin Marche de l'Eustigia Crige Valse de l'Eustigia Crige Prière du Frichoutz I hope more comrade Valse de l'Eustigia Crige Prière du Frichoutz I hope my readers will admit that this was quite a fine entertainment to be given in latitude 79° north of such we had many on board the from, at still higher latitudes. Coffee & Sweets were served after dinner and after a better supper than usual came strawberry ice, alias granita, and lime juice toddy, without alcohol. The health of the hero of the day was first proposed in a few well-chosen words, and then we drank a bumper to the seventy-ninth degree which we were sure was only the first of many degrees to be conquered in the same way. Saturday, September 30. I am not satisfied that the Fram's present position is a good one for the winter. The great flow on the port side to which we are moored sends out an ugly projection about midships, which might give her a bad squeeze in case of the ice-packing. We therefore began today to warp her backwards into better ice. It is by no means quick work. The comparatively open channel around us is now covered with tolerably thick ice, which has to be hewn and broken in pieces with axes, ice-staves, and walrus spears. Then the capstan is manned, and we heave her through the broken flow, foot by foot. The temperature this evening is 9.4 degrees Fahrenheit, minus 12.6 degrees Celsius. A wonderful sunset. Sunday, October 1. Wind from west-south-west and weather mild. We are taking a day of rest, which means eating, sleeping, smoking, and reading. Monday, October 2. Warp the ship farther astern until we found a good birth for her out in the middle of the newly frozen pool. On the port side we have our big flow with a dog's camp, thirty-five black dogs tied up on the white ice. This flow turns alow and by no means threatening edge toward us. We have good low ice on the starboard, too, and between the ship and the flows we have on both sides the newly frozen surface ice, which has in the process of warping also got packed in under the ship's bottom so that she lies in a good bed. As fair-drip Ewell and I were sitting in the charge-room in the afternoon, splicing rope for the sounding line, Peter rushed in shouting, a bear, a bear, and I snatched up my rifle and tore out. Where is it? There, near the tent, on the starboard side. It came right up to it, and had almost got a hold of them. And there it was, big and yellow, snuffing away at the tent gear. Hanson, Blessing, and Johansson were running at the top of their speed towards the ship. On to the ice I jumped and off I went, broke through, stumbled, fell, and up again. The bear in the meantime had done sniffing, and had probably determined, that an iron spade, an ice staff, an axe, some tent pegs, and a canvas tent were too indigestible food even for a bear's stomach. Somehow it was following with mighty strides in the track of the fugitives. It caught sight of me, and stopped, astonished, as if it were thinking, What sort of insect can that be? I went on to within easy range. It stood still, looking hard at me. At last it turned its head a little, and I gave it a ball in the neck. Without moving a limb, it sank slowly to the ice. I now let loose some of the dogs to accustom them to this sort of sport, but they showed a lamentable want of interest in it, and quick, on whom all our hope in the matter of bear-hunting rested, bristled up and approached the dead animal very slowly and carefully, with her tail between her legs, a sorry spectacle. I must now give the story of the others who made the bear's acquaintance first. Hansenhead today began to set up his observatory tent a little ahead of the ship on the starboard bow. In the afternoon he got blessing and Johansson to help him. While they were hard at work, they caught sight of a bear not far from them, just off the bow of the from. Hush! Keep quiet in case we frighten him, says Hansen. Yes, yes, and they crouched together and looked at him. I think I'd better try to slip on board and announce him, as blessing. I think you should, says Hansen, and off steals blessing on tiptoe, so as not to frighten the bear. By this time Bruin has seen and scented them and comes jogging along, following his nose towards them. Hansen now began to get over his fear of startling him. The bear caught sight of blessings slinking off to the ship and set after him. Blessing also was now much less concerned than he had been as to the bear's nerves. He stopped uncertain what to do, but a moment's reflection brought him to the conclusion that it was pleasanter to be three than one just then, and he went back to the others faster than he had gone from them. The bear followed at a good rate. Hansen did not like the look of things and thought the time had come to try a dodge he had seen recommended in a book. He raised himself to his full height, flung his arms about, and yelled with all the power of his lungs ably assisted by the others. But the bear came on quite undisturbed. The situation was becoming critical. Each snatched up his weapon. Hansen and I staff, Johansson and Axe, and blessing nothing. They screamed with all their strength, bear, bear, and set off for the ship as hard as they could tear. But the bear held on his steady course to the tent and examined everything there before as we have seen he went after them. It was a lean he-bear. The only thing that was found in its stomach when it was open was a piece of paper with the names Lutkin and Moan. This was the wrapping paper of a ski-light and had been left by one of us somewhere on the ice. After this day some of the members of the expedition would hardly leave the ship without being armed to the teeth. Wednesday October 4th. Northwesternly wind yesterday and today. Yesterday we had minus sixteen degrees, three degrees Fahrenheit, and today minus fourteen degrees centigrade, seven degrees Fahrenheit. I have worked all day at soundings and got to about eight hundred fathoms depth. The bottom samples consisted of a layer of grey clay four to four and a half inches thick and below that brown clay or mud. The temperature was strangely enough just above freezing point plus point eighteen degrees centigrade at the bottom and just below freezing point minus point four degrees centigrade seventy-five fathoms up. This rather disposes of the story of a shallow polar basin and of the extreme coldness of the water of the Arctic Ocean. While we were hulling up the line in the afternoon the ice cracked a little astern of the from and the crack increased in breadth so quickly the three of us who had to go out to save the ice anchors were obliged to make a bridge over it with a long board to get back to the ship again. Later in the evening there was some packing in the ice and several new passages opened out behind this first one. Thursday October 5th. As I was dressing this morning just before breakfast the mate rushed down to tell me a bear was in sight. I was soon on deck and saw him coming from the south to the lee of us. He was still a good way off but stopped and looked about. Presently he lay down and Hendrickson and I started off across the ice and were lucky enough to send a bullet into his breast at about three hundred fifty yards just as he was moving off. We are making everything snug for the winter and for the ice pressure. This afternoon we took up the rudder. Beautiful weather but cold, minus eighteen degrees centigrade minus point four degrees Fahrenheit at eight p.m. The result of the medical inspection today was the discovery that we still have bugs on board and I do not know what we are to do. We have no steam now and must fix our hopes on the cold. I must confess that this discovery made me feel quite ill. If bugs got into our winter furs the thing was hopeless. So the next day there was a regular feast of purification according to the most rigid antiseptic prescriptions. Each man had to deliver up his old clothes every stitch of them, wash himself and dress in new ones from top to toe. All the old clothes, fur rugs and such things were carefully carried up onto the deck and kept there the whole winter. This was more than even these animals could stand, minus fifty three degrees centigrade minus sixty three degrees Fahrenheit of cold proved to be too much for them and we saw no more of them. As the bug is made to say in the popular rhyme, put me in the boiling pot and shut me down tight but don't leave me out on a cold winter night. Friday October 6th, cold down to eleven degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Today we have begun to rig up the windmill. The ice has been packing to the north of the from stern. As the dogs will freeze if they are kept tied up and get no exercise we let them loose this afternoon and are going to try if we can leave them so. Of course they at once began to fight and some poor creatures limped away from the battlefield scratched and torn but otherwise great joy prevailed. They leaped and ran and rolled themselves in the snow. Brilliant Aurora in the evening. Saturday October 7th, still cold with the same northerly wind we have had all these last days. I am afraid we are drifting far south now. A few days ago we were according to the observations in seventy-eight degrees forty-seven minutes north latitude. That was sixteen minutes south in less than a week. This is too much but we must make it up again. We must get north. It means going away from home now but soon it will mean going nearer home. What depth of beauty with an undercurrent of endless sadness there is in these dreamily glowing evenings. The vanished sun has left its track of melancholy flame. Nature's music which fills all space is instinct with sorrow that all this beauty should be spread out day after day, week after week, year after year over a dead world. Why? Sunsets are always sad at home too. This thought makes the sight seem doubly precious here and doubly sad. There is red burning blood in the west against the cold snow and to think that this is the sea, stiffened in chains, in death and that the sun will soon leave us and we shall be in the dark alone. And the earth was without form and void. Is this the sea that is to come? Sunday, October 8th, beautiful weather. Made a snowshoe expedition westward all the dogs following. The running was a little spoiled by the brine which soaks up through the snow from the surface of the ice, flat newly frozen ice with older uneven blocks breaking through it. I seated myself on a snow hammock far away out the dogs crowded round to be padded. My eye wandered over the great snow plain, endless and solitary. Nothing but snow, snow everywhere. The observations today gave us an unpleasant surprise. We are now down in seventy-eight degrees, thirty-five minutes north latitude. But there is a simple enough explanation of this when one thinks of all the northerly and northwesterly wind we have had lately with open water not far to the south of us. As soon as everything is frozen we must go north again, there can be no question of that, but nonetheless this state of matters is unpleasant. I find some comfort in the fact that we have also drifted a little east so that at all events we have kept with the wind and are not drifting down westward. I was feverish both during last night and today. Goodness knows what is the meaning of such nonsense. When I was taking water samples in the morning I discovered that the water lifter suddenly stopped at the depth of a little less than eighty fathoms. It was really the bottom. So we have drifted south again to the shallow water. We let the weight lie at the bottom for a little and saw by the line that for the moment we were drifting north. This was some small comfort anyhow. All at once in the afternoon as we were sitting idly chatting a deafening noise began and the whole ship shook. This was the first ice pressure. Everyone rushed on deck to look. The frown behaved beautifully as I had expected she would. On pushed the ice with steady pressure but down under us it had to go and we were slowly lifted up. These squeezings continued off and on all the afternoon and were sometimes so strong that the frown was lifted several feet but then the ice could no longer bear her and she broke it below her. Towards evening the hull slackened again till we lay in a good sized piece of open water and had hurriedly to moor her to our old flow or we should have drifted off. There seems to be a good deal of movement in the ice here. Peter has just been telling us that he hears the dull booming of strong pressures not far off. Tuesday October 10th. The ice continues disturbed. Wednesday October 11th. The bad news was brought this afternoon that Yob is dead. Torn in pieces by the other dogs. He was found a good way from the ship, old Suggen lying watching the corpse so that no other dog could get to it. They are wretches, these dogs, no day passes without a fight. In the daytime one of us is generally at hand to stop it but at night they seldom fail to tear and bite one of their comrades. Poor Barabbas is almost frightened out of his wits. He stays on board now and dares not venture on the ice because he knows the other monsters would set on him. There is not a trace of chivalry about these currs. When there is a fight the whole pack rush like wild beasts on the loser. But is it not perhaps the law of nature that the strong and not the weak should be protected? Have not we human beings perhaps been trying to turn nature topsy-turvy by protecting and doing our best to keep life in all the weak? The ice is restless and has pressed a good deal today again. It begins with a gentle crack and moan along the side of the ship, which gradually sounds louder in every key. Now it is a high plaintive tone, now it is a grumble, now it is a snarl and the ship gives a startup. The noise steadily grows till it is like all the pipes of an organ. The ship trembles and shakes and rises by fits and starts or is sometimes gently lifted. There is a pleasant, comfortable feeling in sitting listening to all this uproar and knowing the strength of our ship. Many a one would have been crushed long ago, but outside the ice is ground against our ship's sides. The piles of broken up flow are forced under her heavy, invulnerable hull and we lie as if in a bed. Soon the noise begins to die down. The ship sinks into its old position again and presently all is silent as before. In several places round us the ice is piled up at one spot to a considerable height. Towards evening there was a slackening and we lay again in a large open pool. Thursday, October twelfth. In the morning we and our flow were drifting on blue water in the middle of a large open lane which stretched far to the north and in the north the atmosphere at the horizon was dark and blue. As far as we could see from the crow's nest with the small field glass there was no end to the open water with only single pieces of ice sticking up in it here and there. These are extraordinary changes. I wondered if we should prepare to go ahead. But they had long ago taken the machinery to pieces for the winter so that it would be a matter of time to get it ready for use again. Perhaps it would be best to wait a little. Clear weather was sunshine, a beautiful and spiriting winter day, but the same northerly wind. Took soundings and found fifty fathoms of water, ninety meters. We are drifting slowly southwards. Towards evening the ice packed together again with much force, but the from can hold her own. In the afternoon I fished in a depth of about twenty-seven fathoms, fifty meters, with Murray's silk net and had a good take, especially of small crustaceans. Copapodai, Ostracodai, Amphipodai, etc., and of a little arctic worm, Spadella, that swims about in the sea. It is horribly difficult to manage a little fishing here. No sooner have you found an opening to slip your tackle through than it begins to close again and you have to haul up as hard as you can so as not to get the line nipped and lose everything. It is a pity, for there are interesting halls to be made. One sees phosphorescence in the water here whenever there is the smallest opening in the ice. There is by no means such a scarcity of animal life as one might expect. Friday, October 13th. Now we are in the very midst of what the prophets would have had us dread so much. The ice is pressing and packing round us with a noise like thunder. It is piling itself up into long walls and heaps high enough to reach a good way up the from's rigging. In fact, it is trying its very utmost to grind the from into powder. But here we sit quite tranquil, not even going up to look at all the hurly-burly, but just chatting and laughing as usual. Last night there was tremendous pressure round our old dog flow. The ice had towered up higher than the highest point of the flow and hustled down upon it. It had quite spoiled to well, where we till now had found good drinking water filling it with brine. Furthermore it had cast itself over our stern ice anchor and part of the steel cable which held it, burying them so effectually that we had afterwards to cut the cable. Then it covered our planks and sledges which stood on the ice. Before long the dogs were in danger and the watch had to turn out all hands to save them. At last the flow split in two. This morning the ice was one scene of melancholic confusion gleaming in the most glorious sunshine. Piled up all round us were high, steep ice walls. Strangely enough we had lain on the very verge of the worst confusion and had escaped with the loss of an ice anchor, a piece of steel cable, a few planks and other bits of wood, and half of a semi-ed sledge, all of which might have been saved if we had looked after them in time. But the men have grown so indifferent to the pressure now that they do not even go up to look, let it thunder ever so hard. They feel that the ship can stand it, and so long as that is the case there is nothing to hurt except the ice itself. In the morning the pressure slackened again and we were soon lying in a large piece of open water as we did yesterday. Today again this stretched far away towards the northern horizon where the same dark atmosphere indicated some extent of open water. I now gave the order to put the engine together again. They told me it could be done in a day and a half or at most two days. We must go north and see what there is up there. I think it possible that it may be the boundary between the ice drift that Jeanette was in and the pack we are now drifting south with, or can it be land. We had kept company quite long enough with the old, now broken up flow, so worked ourselves a little way astern after dinner as the ice was beginning to draw together. Towards evening the pressure began again in earnest and was especially bad round the remains of our old flow so that I believe we may congratulate ourselves on having left it. It is evident that the pressure here stands in connection with is perhaps caused by the tidal wave. It occurs with the greatest regularity. The ice blackens twice and packs twice in twenty-four hours. The pressure has happened about four, five, and six o'clock in the morning and almost at exactly the same hour in the afternoon and in between we have always lain for some part of the time in open water. The very great pressure just now is probably due to the spring tide. We had new moon on the ninth which was the first day of the pressure. Then it was just after midday when we noticed it, but it has been later every day and now it is at eight p.m. The theory of the ice pressure being caused to a considerable extent by the tidal wave has been advanced repeatedly by Arctic explorers. During the Froms drifting we had better opportunity than most of them to study this phenomenon and our experience seems to leave no doubt that over a wide region the tide produces movement and pressure of the ice. It occurs especially at the time of the spring tides and more at new moon than at full moon. During the intervening periods there was as a rule little or no trace of pressure, but these tidal pressures did not occur during the whole time of our drifting. We noticed them especially the first autumn while we were in the neighborhood of the open sea north of Siberia and the last year when the From was drawing near the open Atlantic Ocean. They were less noticeable while we were in the polar basin. Pressure occurs here more irregularly and is mainly caused by the wind driving the ice. When one pictures to oneself these enormous ice masses drifting in a certain direction suddenly meeting hindrances, for example ice masses drifting from the opposite direction owing to a change of wind in some more or less distant quarter, it is easy to understand the tremendous pressure that must result. Such an ice conflict is undeniably a stupendous spectacle. One feels oneself to be in the presence of titanic forces and it is easy to understand how timid souls may be over-odd and feel as if nothing could stand before it. For when the packing begins in earnest it seems as though there could be no spot on the earth's surface left unshaken. First you hear a sound like the thundering rumble of an earthquake far away on the great waste. Then you hear it in several places always coming nearer and nearer. The silent ice world re-echoes with thunders. Nature's giants are awakening to the battle. The ice cracks on every side of you and begins to pile itself up and all of a sudden you too find yourself in the midst of the struggle. There are howlings and thunderings round you. You feel the ice trembling and hear it rumbling under your feet. There is no peace anywhere. In the semi-darkness you can see it piling and tossing itself up into high ridges nearer and nearer you. Flows ten, twelve, fifteen feet thick, broken and flung on the top of each other as if they were feather weights. They are quite near you now and you jump away to save your life. But the ice splits in front of you. A black gulf opens and water streams up. You turn in another direction but there through the dark you can just see a new ridge of moving ice blocks coming towards you. You try another direction but there it is the same. All round there is thundering and roaring as of some enormous waterfall with explosions like cannon salvos. Still nearer you it comes. The flow you are standing on gets smaller and smaller. Water pours over it. There can be no escape except by scrambling over the rolling ice blocks to get to the other side of the pack. But now the disturbance begins to calm down. The noise passes on and is lost by degrees in the distance. This is what goes on away there in the north month after month and year after year. The ice is split and piled up into mounds which extend in every direction. If one could get a bird's eye view of the ice fields they would seem to be cut up into squares or meshes by a network of these packed ridges or pressure dykes as we called them because they reminded us so much of snow-covered stone dykes at home such as in many parts of the country are used to enclose fields. At first sight these pressure ridges appeared to be scattered about in all possible directions. But on closer inspection I was sure that I discovered certain directions which they tended to take and especially that they were apt to run at right angles to the course of the pressure which produced them. In the accounts of Arctic expeditions one often reads descriptions of pressure ridges or pressure hummocks as high as 50 feet. These are fairy tales. The authors of such fantastic descriptions cannot have taken the trouble to measure. During the whole period of our drifting and of our travels over the ice fields in the far north I only once saw a hammock of a greater height than 23 feet. Unfortunately I had not the opportunity of measuring this one but I believe I may say with certainty that it was very nearly 30 feet high. All the highest blocks I measured and they were many had a height of 18 to 23 feet and I can maintain with certainty that the packing of sea ice to a height of over 25 feet is a very rare exception. End of file nine.