Farewell to Norway. 101 



it would be a bad look out indeed. Such are the chill 

 surprises that the Arctic Sea has more than enough of. 

 I dressed and was up in the crow's-nest in a twinkling. 

 The ice lay extended everywhere, as far as the eye could 

 reach through the fog, which had lifted a little. There 

 was no small quantity of ice, but it was tolerably open, 

 and there was nothing for it but to be true to our watch- 

 word and "ga fram" -push onwards. For a good while 

 we picked our way. But now it began to lie closer with 

 large rloes every here and there, and at the same time 

 the fog grew denser, and w r e could not see our way at 

 all. To go ahead in difficult ice and in a fog is not very 

 prudent, for it is impossible to tell just where you are 

 going, and you are apt to be set fast before you know 

 where you are. So we had to stop and wait. But still 

 the fosr grew ever denser, while the ice did the same. 



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Our hopes meanwhile rose and fell, but mostly the latter 

 I think. To encounter so much ice already in these 

 waters, where at this time of year the sea is, as a 

 rule, quite free from it, boded anything but good. 

 Already at Tromso and Vardo we had heard bad news ; 

 the White Sea, they said, had only been clear of ice 

 a very short time, and a boat that had tried to reach 

 Yuo'or Strait had had to turn back because of the ice. 



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Neither were our anticipations of the Kara Sea 

 altogether cheerful. What might we not expect there ? 

 For the Urania with our coal, too, this ice was a 

 bad business ; for it would be unable to make its way 



