NAN SEN'S MEMORABLE VOYAGE IN THE "FRAM" 383 



A picturesque glimpse is given by Nansen of their life in his 

 diary entry made on December 24, 1895, when the temperature 

 inside the hut was u degrees below zero. 



"And this is Christmas Eve; cold and blowy out of doors, and 

 cold and draughty indoors. How desolate it is here! We have 

 never had such a Christmas before. The bells are now ringing in 

 the Christmas festival at home ; I can hear the sound of them swing- 

 ing out through the air from the church towers. How beautiful it 

 sounds ! Now the candles are being lit on the Christmas trees, and 

 flocks of children are let in and dance round in exuberant glee. 

 Must have a Christmas party for children when I get home. We, 

 too, are keeping the festival in our little way. Johansen has turned 

 his shirt, and has put the outer one inside. I have done the same, 

 and have changed my drawers as well, and put on the others which 

 I had wrung out in warm water. And then I have washed myself 

 in a quarter of a cup of warm water, using the discarded drawers 

 as sponge and towel. I feel like a new being ; my clothes do not stick 

 to my body as much as they did. Then for supper we had fish 

 'gratin,' made of potted fish and Indian meal, with train-oil for 

 butter fried or boiled both equally dry and as sweets we had 

 bread fried in train-oil. To-morrow morning we are going to have 

 chocolate and bread." 



Time passed on monotonously enough, the night being dismally 

 long and dreary, but at length the approach of the sun became mani- 

 fest by the gradually brightening twilight, and the arrival of a 

 flock of little auks reminded them that spring was at hand. They 

 celebrated the occasion by boiling their clothes, one article at a time, 

 in the only pot they possessed, and then scraping the grease and 

 dirt from them by the aid of a knife, so as to render them soft 

 enough for traveling, as it was beyond the question to get them 

 clean. The sooty smoke from the winter's cooking had thoroughly 

 begrimed their faces, and all they could do to get clean was first to 

 try and scrape the dirt off with the knife, and then rub themselves 

 all over with bear's grease and wipe it off with moss. 



