CHAPTER VIII. 



SECOND AUTUMN IN THE ICE. 



So summer was over, and our second autumn and winter 

 were beginning. But we were now more inured to the 

 trials of patience attendant on this life, and time passed 

 quickly. Besides, I myself was now taken up with 

 new plans and preparations. Allusion has several 

 times been made to the fact that we had, during the 

 course of the summer, got everything into readiness for 

 the possibility of having to make our way home across 

 the ice. Six double kayaks had been built, the hand 

 sledges were in good order, and careful calculation had 

 been made of the amount of food, clothing, fuel, etc., 

 that it would be necessary to carry. But I had also 

 quietly begun to make preparations for my own medi- 

 tated expedition north. In August, as already mentioned, 

 I had begun to work at a single kayak, the framework 

 made of bamboo. I had said nothing about my plan 

 yet, except a few words to Sverdrup ; it was impossible 

 to tell how far north the drift would take us, and so 

 many things might happen before spring. 



