2io Chapter VI. 



too ; each separate part was taken out, oiled, and laid 

 away for the winter ; slide-valves, pistons, 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 tending 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 passed, winter or summer, all these three 

 years, that he did not go down and 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, shoemaker's and sailmaker's, and various 

 odd sorts of work, in the saloon. And all these occupa- 

 tions were carried on with interest and activity during the 

 rest of the expedition. There was nothing, from the 

 most delicare instruments down to wooden shoes and 

 axe-handles, that could not be made on board the Fraiu. 

 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 

 patronised. 



