 8. Friday, October 12. A regular storm has been blowing from the east-south-east since yesterday evening. Last night the mill went to bits. The teeth broke off one of the tooth wheels which has been considerably worn by a year's use. The velocity of the wind was over forty feet this morning and it is long since I have heard it blow as it is doing this evening. We must be making good progress north just now. Perhaps October is not to be such a bad month as I expected from our experiences of last year. It was out snow-showing before dinner. The snow was whistling about my ears. I had not much trouble in getting back the wind sought to that. A tremendous snow squall is blowing just now. The moon stands low in the southern sky sending a dull glow through the driving masses. One has to hold on to one's cap. This is a real dismal polar night such as one imagines it to oneself sitting at home far away in the south. But it makes me cheerful to come on deck, for I feel that we are moving onward. Saturday October 13th. Same wind today, velocity up to thirty-nine feet and higher, but Hansen has taken an observation this evening in spite of it. He is, as always, a fine, indefatigable fellow. We are going northwest, eighty-one degrees, thirty-two minutes, eight seconds north latitude, one hundred eighteen degrees, twenty-eight minutes east longitude. Sunday October 14th. Still the same storm going on. I am reading of the continual sufferings which the earlier Arctic explorers had to contend with for every degree, even for every minute of their northward course. It gives me almost a feeling of contempt for us, lying here on sofas, warm and comfortable, passing the time, reading and writing and smoking and dreaming. While the storm is tugging and tearing at the rigging above us, and the whole sea is one mass of driving snow, through which we are carried, degree by degree northwards to the goal our predecessors struggle towards, spending their strength in vain. And yet, now sinks the sun, now comes the night. Monday October 15th. When snow-showing eastwards this morning, still against the same wind and the same snowfall. You have to pay careful attention to your course these days, as the ship is not visible any great distance, and if you did not find your way back, well... But the tracks remain pretty distinct, as the snowcrust is blown bare in most places, and the drifting snow does not fasten upon it. We are moving northwards, and meanwhile the Arctic night is making its slow and majestic entrance. The sun was low to-day. I did not see it, because of banks of cloud in the south, but it still sent its light up over the pale sky. There the full moon is now raining, bathing the great ice-plane and the drifting snow in its bright light. How a night such as this raises one's thoughts. It does not matter if one has seen the like a thousand times before. It makes the same solemn impression when it comes again. One cannot free one's mind from its power. It is like entering a still holy temple, where the spirit of nature hovers through the place on glittering silver beams, and the soul must fall down and adore. Adore the infinity of the universe. Wednesday, October 17th. We are employed in taking deep-water temperatures. It is a doubtful pleasure at this time of year. Sometimes the water lifter gets coated with ice, so that it will not close down below in the water, and has therefore to hang for ever so long each time. Sometimes it freezes tight during the observation after it is brought up, so that the water will not run out of it into the sample bottles, not to mention all the bother there is getting the apparatus ready to lower. We are lucky if we do not require to take the whole thing into the galley every time to thaw it. It is slow work. The temperatures have sometimes to be read by lantern-light. The water samples are not so reliable because they freeze in the lifter, but the thing can be done, and we must just go on doing it. The same easterly wind is blowing, and we are drifting onwards. Our latitude this evening is about 81 degrees, 47 minutes north. Thursday, October 18th. I continue taking the temperatures of the water, rather a cool amusement with a thermometer down to minus 29 degrees Celsius, 20.2 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, and a wind blowing. Your fingers are apt to get a little stiff and numb when you have to manipulate the wet or ice-covered metal screws with bare hands, and have to read off the thermometer with a magnifying glass in order to ensure accuracy to the 100th part of a degree, and then to bottle the samples of water, which you have to keep close against your breast to prevent the water from freezing. It is a nice business. There was a lovely aurora borealis at eight o'clock this evening. It wound itself like a fiery serpent in a double coil across the sky. The tail was about ten degrees above the horizon in the north. Then it turned off with many windings in an easterly direction, then round again, and westwards in the form of an arch from 30 degrees to 40 degrees above the horizon, sinking down again to the west and rolling itself up into a ball from which several branches spread out over the sky. The arches were in active motion while pencils of streamers shot out swiftly from the west towards the east, and the whole serpent kept incessantly undulating into fresh curves. Gradually it mounted up over the sky nearly to the zenith, while at the same time the uppermost bend or arch separated into several fainter undulations. The ball in the northeast glowed intensely, and brilliant streamers shot upwards to the zenith from several places in the arches, especially from the ball and from the bend farthest away in the northeast. The illumination was now at its highest, the color being principally a strong yellow, though at some spots it verged towards a yellowish red while at other places it was a greenish white. When the upper wave reached the zenith, the phenomenon lost something of its brilliancy, dispersing little by little, leaving merely a faint indication of an aurora in the southern sky. On coming up again on deck later in the evening I found nearly the whole of the aurora collected in the southern half of the sky. A low arch, five degrees in height, could be seen far down in the south over the dark segment of the horizon. Between this and the zenith were four other vague wavy arches, the topmost of which passed right across it, here and there vivid streamers shot flaming upwards especially from the undermost arch in the south. No arch was to be seen in the northern part of the sky, only streamers every here and there. Tonight as usual there are traces of aurora to be seen over the whole sky, light mists or streamers are often plainly visible and the sky seems to be constantly covered with a luminous veil in which every here and there are dark holes. There is scarcely any night or rather I may safely say there is no night on which no trace of aurora can be discerned as soon as the sky becomes clear or even when there is simply a rift in the clouds large enough for it to be seen. And as a rule we have strong light phenomena dancing in ceaseless unrest over the firmament. They mainly appear however in the southern part of the sky. Friday October 19th, a fresh breeze from east southeast, drifting northwards at a good pace. Soon we shall probably have passed the long looked for 82 degrees and that will not be far from 82 degrees 27 minutes when the from will be the vessel that will have penetrated farthest to the north on this globe. But the barometer is falling the wind probably will not remain in that quarter long but will shift round to the west. I only hope for this once the barometer may prove a false profit. I have become rather sanguine things have been going pretty well for so long and October a month which last year's experience had made me dread has been a month of marked advance if only it doesn't end badly. The wind today however was to cost a life. The mill which had been repaired after the mishap to the cogwheel the other day was set going again. In the afternoon a couple of the puppies began fighting over a bone when one of them fell underneath one of the cogwheels on the axle of the mill and was dragged in between it and the deck. Its poor little body nearly made the whole thing come to a standstill and unfortunately no one was on the spot to stop it in time. I heard the noise and rushed on deck the puppy had just been drawn out nearly dead the hole of its stomach was torn open. It gave a faint whine and was at once put out of its misery. Poor little frolicsome creature only a little while ago you were gambling around enjoying an innocent romp with your brothers and sisters. Then came the thigh bone of a bear trembling along the deck from the galley. You and the others made a headlong rush for it and now there you lie cruelly lacerated and dead as a herring. Fate is inexorable. Sunday October 31st North latitude 82 degrees 0.2 minutes east longitude 114 degrees nine minutes. It is late in the evening and my head is bewildered as if I had been indulging in a regular debauch but it was a debauch of a very innocent nature. A grand banquet today to celebrate the 82nd degree of latitude. The observation gave 82 degrees 0.2 minutes last night and we have now certainly drifted a little farther north. Honeycakes, gingerbread were baked for the occasion. First-class honeycakes too you may take my word for it and then after a refreshing snowshoe run came a festal banquet. Notices were stuck up in the saloon requesting the guests to be punctual at dinnertime for the cook had exerted himself to the utmost of his power. The following deeply felt lines by an anonymous poet also appeared on a placard. When dinner is punctually served at the time no fear that the milk soup will surely be prime but the vions are spoiled if you come too late the fish pudding will lie on your chest a dead weight. What's preserved in tin cases there can be no doubt if you wait long enough will force its way out. Even meat of the ox of the sheep or of swine very different in this from the juice of the vine. Ramourney and armour and thorn and hair this good meats have preserved and they taste not amiss so I'll add just a word friends of warning to you if you want a good dinner come at one not at two. The lyric melancholy which here finds utterance must have been the outcome of many bitter disappointments and furnishes a valuable internal evidence as to the anonymous author's profession. Meanwhile the guests assembled with tolerable punctuality the only exception being your humble servant who was obliged to take some photographs in the rapidly waning daylight. The menu was splendid one oxtail soup two fish pudding with melted butter and potatoes three turtle with marrow fat peas etc etc four rice with malter cloudberries and cream crown malt extract after dinner coffee and honey cakes after supper which also was excellent there was a call for music which was liberally supplied throughout the whole evening by various accomplished performers on the organ among whom Benson specially distinguished himself his late experiences on the ice with the crank handle having put him in first rate training every now and then the music dragged a bit as though it were being hauled up from an abyss some one thousand or fifteen hundred fathoms deep then it would cook in and get more lively as it came nearer to the surface at last the excitement rose to such a pitch that Pettersen and I had to get up and have a dance a waltz and a polka or two and we really executed some very tasteful pod to do on the limited floor of the saloon then Almondson also was swept into the mazes of the dance while the others played cards meanwhile refreshments were served in the form of preserved peaches dried bananas figs honey cakes etc etc in short we made a jovial evening of it and why should we not we are progressing merrily towards our goal we are already halfway between the new Siberian islands and frost joseph land and there is not a soul on board who doubts that we shall accomplish what we came out to do so long live merriment but the endless stillness of the polar night holds its sway aloft the moon half full shines over the ice and the stars sparkle brilliantly overhead there are no restless northern lights and the south wind sighs mournfully through the rigging a deep peaceful stillness prevails everywhere it is the infinite loveliness of death nirvana Monday october 22nd it is beginning to be cold now the thermometer was minus 34.6 degrees celsius 30.2 degrees fahrenheit below zero last night and this evening it is minus 36 degrees celsius 32.8 degrees fahrenheit below zero a lovely aurora this evening 1130 a brilliant corona encircled the zenith with a wreath of streamers in several layers one outside the other then larger and smaller sheaves of streamers spread over the sky especially low down towards southwest and east southeast all of them however tended upwards towards the corona which shown like a halo i stood watching it a long while every now and then i could discern a dark patch in its middle at the point where all the rays converged it lay a little south of the pole star and approached cassiopeia in the position it then occupied but the halo kept smoldering and shifting just as if a gale in the upper strata of the atmosphere were playing the bellows to it presently fresh streamers shot out of the darkness outside the inner halo followed by other bright shafts of light in a still wider circle and meanwhile the dark space in the middle was clearly visible at other times it was entirely covered with masses of light then it appeared as if the storm abated and the whole turned pale and glowed with a faint whitish hue for a little while only to shoot wildly up once more and to begin the same dance over again then the entire mass of light around the corona began to rock to and fro in large waves over the zenith and the dark central point where upon the gale seemed to increase and whirled the streamers into an inextricable tangle till they merged into a luminous vapor that enveloped the corona and drowned it in a deluge of light so that neither it nor the streamers nor the dark center could be seen nothing in fact but a chaos of shining mist again it became paler and i went below at midnight there was hardly anything of the aurora to be seen friday october 26th yesterday evening we were in 82 degrees three minutes north latitude today the from is two years old the sky has been overcast during the last two days and it has been so dark at midday that i thought we should soon have to stop our snowshoe expeditions but this morning brought us clear still weather and i went out on a delightful trip to the westward where there had been a good deal of fresh packing but nothing of any importance in honor of the occasion we had a particularly good dinner with fried halibut turtle pork chops with haraco beans and green peas plum pudding real burning plum pudding for the first time with custard sauce and wound up with strawberries as usual the beverages consisted of wine that is to say lime juice with water and sugar and crown malt extract i fear there was a general overtaxing of the digestive apparatus after dinner coffee and honey cakes with which nordall stood cigarettes general holiday this evening it has begun to blow from the north but probably this does not mean much i must hope so at all events and trust that we shall soon get a south wind again but it is not the mild zephyr we yearn for not the breath of the blushing dawn no a cold biting south wind roaring with all the force of the polar sea so that the from the two-year-old from may be buried in the snowstorm and all round her be but a reeking frost it is this we are waiting for this that will drift us onwards to our goal today then from thou art two years old i said at the dinner table that if a year ago we were unanimous in believing that the from was a good ship we had much better grounds for that belief today for safely and surely she is carrying us onwards even if the speed be not excessive and so we drank the from's good health and good progress i did not say too much had i said all that was in my heart my words would not have been so measured for to say the truth we all of us dearly love the ship as much as it is possible to love any impersonal thing and why should we not love her no mother can give her young more warmth and safety under her wings than she affords to us she is indeed like a home to us we all rejoice to return to her from out on the icy plains and when i have been far away and have seen her masts rising over the everlasting mantle of snow how often has my heart glowed with warmth towards her to the builder of this home grateful thoughts often travel during the still nights he i feel certain sits yonder at home often thinking of us but he knows not where his thought can seek the from in the great white tract around the pole but he knows his child and though all else lose faith in her he will believe that she will hold out yes call an archer could you see us now you would know that your faith in her is not misplaced i am sitting alone in my birth and my thoughts glide back over the two years that have passed what demon is it that weaves the threads of our lives that makes us deceive ourselves and ever sends us forth on paths we have not ourselves laid out path the sun which we have no desire to walk was it a mere feeling of duty that impelled me oh no i was simply a child yearning for a great adventure out in the unknown who had dreamed of it so long that at last i believe it really awaited me and it has indeed fallen to my lot the great adventure of the ice deep and pure as infinity the silent starlit polar night nature itself in its profundity the mystery of life the ceaseless circling of the universe the feast of death without suffering without regret eternal in itself here in the great night thou standest in all thy naked pettiness face to face with nature and thou sittest devoutly at the feet of eternity intently listening and thou knowest god the all ruling the center of the universe all the riddles of life seem to grow clear to thee and thou laughest at thyself that thou couldst be consumed by brooding it is all so little so unutterably little whoso sees jojoba dies sunday november fourth at noon i had gone out on a snowshoe expedition and had taken some of the dogs with me presently i noticed that those that had been left behind at the ship began to bark those with me pricked up their ears and several of them started off back with you lanka at their head most of them soon stopped listening and looking behind them to see if i were following i wondered for a little while whether it could be a bear and then continued on my way but at length i could stand at no longer and set off homewards with the dogs dashing wildly on in front on approaching the ship i saw some of the men setting off with guns they were sverdrup yohansen mogsted and henrickson they had got a good start of me in the direction in which the dogs were barking before i too got hold of a gun and set off after them all at once i saw through the darkness the flash of a volley from those in front followed by another shot then several more until at last it sounded like regular platoon firing what the deuce could it be they were standing on the same spot and kept firing incessantly why on earth did they not advance nearer i hurried on thinking it was high time i came up with my snowshoes to follow the game which must evidently be in full flight meanwhile they advanced a little and then there was another flash to be seen through the darkness and so they went on two or three times one of the number at last dashed forward over the ice and fired straight down in front of him while another knelt down and fired towards the east were they trying their guns but surely it was a strange time for doing so and there were so many shots meanwhile the dogs tore around over the ice and gathered in clumps barking furiously at length i overtook them and saw three bears scattered over the ice a shebear and two cubs while the dogs lay over them worrying them like mad and tearing away at paws throat and tail eulanka especially was beside herself she had gripped one of the cubs by the throat and worried it like a mad thing so that it was difficult to get her away the bears had gone very leisurely away from the dogs which dared not come to sufficiently close quarters to use their teeth till the old shebear had been wounded and had fallen down the bears indeed had acted in a very suspicious manner it seemed just as if the shebear had some deep design some evil intent in her mind if she could only have lured the dogs near enough to her suddenly she halted let the cubs go on in front sniffed a little and then came back to meet the dogs who at the same time as if at a word of command all turned tail and set off towards the west it was then that the first shot was fired and the old bear tottered and fell headlong when immediately some of the dogs set to and tackled her one of the cubs then got its quietess while the other one was fired at and made off over the ice with three dogs after it they soon overtook it and pulled it down so that when mogs dead came up he was obliged first of all to get the dogs off before he could venture to shoot it was a glorious slaughter and by no means unwelcome for we had that very day eaten the last remains of our last bear in the shape of meat cakes for dinner the two cubs made lovely christmas pork in all probability these were the same bears whose tracks we had seen before sverdrup and i had followed on the tracks of three such animals on the last day of october and had lost them to north northwest of the ship apparently they had come from that quarter now when they wanted to shoot peter's gun as usual would not go off it had again been drenched with vaseline and he kept calling out shoot shoot mine won't go off afterwards on examining the gun i had taken with me to the fray i found there were no cartridges in it a nice account i should have given of myself had i come on the bears alone with that weapon monday november fifth as i was sitting at work last night i heard a dog on the deck howling fearfully i sprang up and found it was one of the puppies that had touched an iron bolt with its tongue and was frozen fast to it there the poor beast was straining to get free with its tongue stretched out so far that it looked like a thin rope proceeding out of its throat and it was howling piteously benson whose watch it was had come up but scarcely knew what to do he took hold of it however by the neck and held it close to the bolt so that its tongue was less extended after having warmed the bolt somewhat with his hand he managed to get the tongue free the poor little puppy seemed overjoyed at its release and to show its gratitude licked benson's hand with its bloody tongue and seemed as if it could not be grateful enough to its deliverer it is to be hoped that it will be some time before this puppy at any rate gets fast again in this way but such things happen every now and then sunday november 11th i am pursuing my studies as usual day after day and they lure me too deeper and deeper into the insoluble mystery that lies behind all these inquiries nay why keep revolving in this fruitless circle of thought better go out into the winter night the moon is up great and yellow and placid the stars are twinkling overhead through the drifting snow dust why not rock yourself into a winter night stream filled with memories of summer uh no the wind is howling too shrilly over the barren ice planes there are 33 degrees of cold and summer with its flowers is far far away i would give a year of my life to hold them in my embrace they loom far away in the distance as if i should never come back to them but the northern lights with their eternally shifting loveliness flame over the heavens each day and each night look at them drink oblivion and drink hope from them they are even as the aspiring soul of man restless as it is they will read the whole vault of heaven with their glittering fleeting light surpassing all else in their wild loveliness fairer than even the blush of dawn but whirling idly through empty space they bear no message of a coming day the sailor steers his course by a star could you but concentrate yourselves you too or northern lights might lend your aid to guide the wielded wanderer but dance on and let me enjoy you stretch a bridge across the gulf between the present and the time to come and let me dream far far ahead into the future oh thou mysterious radiance what art thou and whence come as thou yet why ask is it not enough to admire thy beauty and pause there can we at best get beyond the outward show of things what would it profit even if we could say that it is an electric discharge or currents of electricity through the upper regions of the air and were able to describe in minutest detail how it all came to be it would be mere words we know no more what an electric current really is than what the aurora borealis is happy is the child we with all our views and theories are not in the last analysis a hair's breadth nearer the truth than it it Tuesday November 13th thermometer minus 38 degrees Celsius minus 36.4 degrees Fahrenheit the ice is packing in several quarters during the day and the roar is pretty loud now that the ice has become colder it can be heard from afar a strange roar which would sound uncanny to anyone who did not know what it was a delightful snowshoe run in the light of the full moon is life a veil of tears is it such a deplorable fate to dash off like the wind with all the dogs skipping around one over the boundless expanse of ice through a night like this in the fresh crackling frost while the snowshoes glide over the smooth surface so that you scarcely know you are touching the earth and the stars hang high in the blue vault above this is more indeed than one has any right to expect of life it is a fairy tale from another world from a life to come and then to return home to one's cozy study cabin kindle the stove light the lamp fill a pipe stretch oneself on the sofa and send dreams out into the world with the curling clouds of smoke is that a dire inflection thus I catch myself sitting staring at the fire for hours together dreaming myself away a useful way of employing the time but at least it makes it slip unnoticed by until the dreams are swept away in an ice blast of reality and I sit here in the midst of desolation and nervously set to work again Wednesday November 14th how marvelous are these snowshoe runs through this silent nature the ice fields stretch all around bathed in the silver moonlight here in their dark cold shadows project from the hummocks whose sides faintly reflect the twilight far far out a dark line marks the horizon formed by the packed up ice over it a shimmer of silvery vapor and above all the boundless deep blue starry sky where the full moon sails through the ether but in the south is a faint glimmer of day low down of a dark glowing red hue and higher up a clear yellow and pale green arch that loses itself in the blue above the hole melts into a pure harmony one and indescribable at times one longs to be able to translate such scenes into music what mighty chords one would require to interpret them silent oh so silent you can hear the vibrations of your own nerves I seem as if I were gliding over and over these planes into infinite space is this not an image of what is to come eternity and peace are here nirvana must be cold and bright as such an eternal star night what are all our research and understanding in the midst of this infinity friday november 16th in the forenoon I went out with spare drop on snowshoes in the moonlight and we talked seriously of the prospects of our drift and of the proposed expedition northwards over the ice in the spring in the evening we went into the matter more thoroughly in his cabin I stated my views in which he entirely coincided I have of late been meditating a great deal on what is the proper course to pursue supposing the drift does not take us so far north by the month of march as I had anticipated but the more I think of it the more firmly am I persuaded that it is the thing to do for if it be right to set out at 85 degrees it must be no less right to set out at 82 degrees or 83 degrees in either case we should penetrate into more northerly regions than we should otherwise reach and this becomes all the more desirable if the from herself does not get so far north as we had hoped if we cannot actually reach the pole why we must turn back before reaching it the main consideration as I must constantly repeat is not to reach that exact mathematical point but to explore the unknown parts of the polar sea whether these be near to or more remote from the pole I said this before setting out and I must keep it continually in mind certainly there are many important observations to be made on board during the further drift of the ship many which I would dearly like to carry on myself but all the more important of these will be made equally well here even though two of our number leave the ship and there can scarcely be any doubt that the observations we shall make farther north will not many times outweigh in value those I could have made during the remainder of the time on board so far then it is absolutely desirable that we set out then comes the question what is the best time to start that the spring march at the latest is the only season for such a venture there can be no doubt at all but shall it be next spring suppose at the worst we have not advanced farther than to 83 degrees north latitude and 110 degrees east longitude then something might be said for waiting till the spring of 1896 but I cannot but think that we should thus in all probability let slip the propitious moment the drifting could not be so wearingly slow but that after another year had elapsed we should be far beyond the point from which the sledge expedition ought to set out if I measure the distance we have drifted from November of last year with the compasses and mark off the same distance ahead by next November we should be north of France Joseph land and a little beyond it it is conceivable of course that we were no farther advanced in February 1896 either but it is more likely from all I can make out that the drift will increase rather than diminish as we work westwards and consequently in February 1896 we should have got too far while even if one could imagine a better starting point than that which the from will probably offer us by March 1st 1895 it will at all events be a possible one it must consequently be the safest plan not to wait for another spring such then are the prospects before us of pushing through the distance from this proposed starting point to Cape Fligley which is the nearest no land I sat down at about 370 miles consequently not much more than the distance we covered in Greenland and that would be easy work enough over this ice even if it did become somewhat bad towards land if once a coast is reached any reasonable being can surely manage to subsist by hunting whether large or small game whether bears or sandhoppers thus we can always make for Cape Fligley or Petterman's land which lies north of it if our situation becomes untenable the distance will of course be increased the farther we advance northwards but at no point whatever between here and the pole is it greater than we can and will manage with the help of our dogs a line of retreat is therefore secured though there are those doubtless who hold that a barren coast where you must first scrape your food together before you can eat it is a poor retreat for hungry men but that is really an advantage for such a retreat would not be too alluring a wretched invention for sooth for people who wish to push on is a line of retreat and everlasting inducement to look behind when they should have enough to do in looking ahead but now for the expedition itself it will consist of 28 dogs two men and 2100 pounds of provisions and equipments the distance to the pole from 83 degrees is 483 miles is it too much to calculate that we may be able to accomplish that distance in 50 days I do not of course know what the staying powers of the dogs may be but that with two men to help they should be able to do nine and a half miles a day with 75 pounds each for the first few days sound sufficiently reasonable even if they are not very good ones this then can scarcely be called a wild calculation always of course supposing the ice to be as it is here and there is no reason why it should not be it indeed steadily improves the farther north we get and it also improves with the approach of spring in 50 days then we should reach the pole in 65 days we went 345 miles over the inland ice of Greenland at an elevation of more than 8000 feet without dogs and with defective provisions and could certainly have gone considerably farther in 50 days we shall have consumed a pound of pemicana day for each dog that is 1400 pounds altogether and two pounds of provisions for each man daily is 200 pounds as some fuel also will have been consumed during this time the freight on the sledges will have diminished to less than 500 pounds but a burden like this is nothing for 28 dogs to draw so that they ought to go ahead like a gale of wind during the latter part of the time and thus do it in less than the 50 days however let us suppose that it takes this time if all has gone well we shall now direct our course for the seven islands north of spitsbergen that is nine degrees or 620 miles but if we are not in first rate condition it will be safer to make for Cape Fligley or the land to the north of it let us suppose we decide on this route we set out from the from on march 1st if circumstances are favorable we should start sooner and therefore arrive at the pole april 30th we shall have about 500 pounds of our provisions left enough for another 50 days but we can spare none for the dogs we must therefore begin killing some of them either for food for the others or for ourselves giving our provisions to them even if my figures are somewhat too low I may assume that by the time 23 dogs have been killed we shall have traveled 41 days and still have five dogs left how far south shall we have advanced in this time the weight of baggage was to begin with less than 500 pounds that is to say less than 18 pounds for each dog to draw after 41 days this will at least have been reduced to 280 pounds by the consumption of provisions and fuel and by dispensing with sundry articles of our equipment such as sleeping bags tents etc etc which will have become superfluous there remain then 56 pounds for each of the five dogs if we draw nothing ourselves and should it be desirable our equipment might be still further diminished with a burden of from 18 to 56 pounds a piece the latter would only be towards the end the dogs would on an average be able to do 13 and four fifths miles a day even if the snow surface should become somewhat more difficult that is to say we shall have gone 565 miles to the south or we shall be 18 and a half miles past Cape Fligley on June 1st with five dogs and nine days provisions left but it is probable in the first place that we shall long before this have reached land and secondly so early as the first half of April the Austrians found open water by Cape Fligley and abundance of birds consequently in May and June we should have no difficulty as regards food not to mention that it would be strange indeed if we had not before that time went with a bear or a seal or some stray birds that we should now be pretty safe I consider a certain and we can choose whichever route we please either along the northwest coast of Franz Joseph land by Gillis land towards northeast island and spitsbergen and should circumstances prove favorable this would decidedly be my choice or we can go south through Austria sound towards the south coast of Franz Joseph land and thence to Novia's Emilia or Spitsbergen the latter by preference we may of course find Englishmen on Franz Joseph land but that we must not reckon on such then is my calculation have I made it recklessly no I think not the only difficulty would be if during the latter part of the journey in May we should find the surface like that we had here last spring at the end of May and should be considerably delayed by it but this would only be towards the very end of our time and at worst it could not be entirely impassable besides it would be strange if we could not manage to average 11 and a half miles a day during the whole of the journey with an average load for each dog from 30 to 40 pounds it would not be more however if our calculation should prove faulty we can always as aforesaid turned back at any moment what unforeseen obstacles may confront us one the ice may be more impracticable than was supposed two we may meet with land three the dogs may fail us may second or freeze to death four we ourselves may suffer from scurvy one and two that the ice may be more impracticable further north is certainly possible but hardly probable I can see no reason why it should be unless we have unknown lands to the north but should this be so very well we must take what chance we find the ice can scarcely be altogether impassable even markham was able to advance with his scurvy smitten people and the coasts of this land may possibly be advantageous for an advance it simply depends on their direction and extent it is difficult to say anything beforehand except that I think the depth of water we have here and the drift of the ice rendered improbable that we can have land of any extent at all close at hand in any case there must somewhere or other be a passage for the ice and at the worst we can follow that passage three there's always a possibility that the dogs may fail us but as may be seen I have not laid out any scheme of excessive work for them and even if one or two of them should prove failures that could not be the case with all with the food they have hitherto had they have got through the winter and the cold without mishap and the food they will get on the journey will be better in my calculations moreover I have taken no account of what we shall draw ourselves and even supposing all the dogs to fail us we could manage to get along by ourselves pretty well four the worst event would undeniably be that we ourselves should be attacked by scurvy and not withstanding our excellent health such a contingency is quite conceivable when it is born in mind how in the English North Pole expedition all the men with the exception of the officers suffered from scurvy when the spring and the sledge journeys began although as long as they were on board ship they had not the remotest suspicion that anything of the kind was lying in wait for them as far however as we are concerned I consider this contingency very remote in the first place the English expedition was remarkably unfortunate and hardly any others can show a similar experience although they may have undertaken sledge journeys of equal length for example McClintock's during the retreat of the Jeanette party so far as is known no one was attacked with scurvy Perry and Ostrup did not suffer from scurvy either moreover our supply of provisions has been more carefully selected and offers greater variety than has been the case in former expeditions not one of which has enjoyed such perfect health as ours I scarcely think therefore that we should take with us from the from any germs of scurvy and as regards the provisions for the sledge journey itself I have taken care that they shall consist of good all-round nutritious articles of food so that I can scarcely believe that they would be the means of developing an attack of this disease of course one must run some risk but in my opinion all possible precautions have been taken and when that is done it is one's duty to go ahead there is yet another question that must be taken into consideration have I the right to deprive the ship and those who remain behind of the resources such an expedition entails the fact that there will be two men less is of little importance for the from can be handled quite as well with 11 men a more important point is that we shall have to take with us all the dogs except the seven puppies but they are amply supplied with sledge provisions and first class sledge equipments on board and it is inconceivable that in case anything happened to the from they should be unable to reach france joseph land or spitsbergen it is scarcely likely that in case they had to abandon her it would be further north and 85 degrees probably not even so far north but suppose they were obliged to abandon her at 85 degrees it would probably be about north of france joseph land when they would be 207 miles from Cape fliggly or if further to the east it would be some 276 miles from the seven islands and it is hard to believe that they could not manage a distance like that with our equipments now as before i am of opinion that the from will in all probability drift right across the polar basin and out on the other side without being stopped and without being destroyed but even if any accident should occur i do not see why the crew should not be able to make their way home in safety provided do measures of precaution are observed consequently i think there is no reason why a sledge expedition should not leave the from and i feel that as it promises such good results it ought certainly to be attempted end of file 18 end of farthest north volume one by free chaff nunson