350 Chapter VI. 



" We had lime-juice with sugar at dinner to-day instead 

 of beer, and it seemed to be approved of. We call it 

 wine, and we agreed that it was better than cider. 

 Weiehinsf has gone on this evening, and the increase in 



O O O O ' 



certain cases is still disquieting. Some have gained as 

 much as 4 pounds in the last month, for instance, Sverdrup, 

 Blessing, and Juell, who beats the record on board with 

 13 stone. ' I never weighed so much as I do now,' says 

 Blessing, and it is much the same story with us all. 

 Yes, this is a fatiguing expedition, but our menus are 

 always in due proportion to our labours. To-day's 

 dinner : Knorr's bean soup, toad-in-the-hole, potatoes, 

 rice, and milk with cranberry jam. Yesterday's dinner : 

 Fish au gratin (hashed fish) with potatoes, curried rabbit 

 with potatoes and French beans, stewed bilberries, and 

 cranberries with milk. At breakfast yesterday we had 

 freshly baked wheat-bread, at breakfast to-day freshly 

 baked rye-bread. These are specimens of our ordinary 

 bills of fare. It is as I expected : I hear the wind roar- 

 ing in the rigging now ; it is going to be a regular storm, 

 according to our ideas of one here. 



" Saturday, February loth. Though that wind the 

 other day did not come to much after all, we still hoped 

 that we had made good way north, and it was 

 consequently an unwelcome surprise when yesterday's 

 observation showed our latitude to be 79 57' N., 13' 

 farther south instead of farther north. It is extra- 

 ordinary how little inured one gets to disappointments ; 



