CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES 161 



strom's Christmas baking, with a mighty kransekake 

 from Hansen's towering in the midst. While we were 

 doing all possible honour to these luxuries, Lindstrom 

 was busily engaged forward, and when we went back 

 after our coffee we found there a beautiful Christmas- 

 tree in all its glory. The tree was an artificial one, but 

 so perfectly imitated that it might have come straight 

 from the forest. This was also a present from Mrs. 

 Schroer. 



Then came the distribution of Christmas presents. 

 Among the many kind friends who had thought of us I 

 must mention the Ladies' Committees in Horten and 

 Fredrikstad,and the telephone employees of Christiania. 

 They all have a claim to our warmest gratitude for the 

 share they had in making our Christmas what it was a 

 bright memory of the long voyage. 



By ten o'clock in the evening the candles of the 

 Christmas-tree were burnt out, and the festivity was at 

 an end. It had been successful from first to last, and 

 we all had something to live on in our thoughts when 

 our everyday duties again claimed us. 



In that part of the voyage which we now had before 

 us the region between the Australian continent and 

 the Antarctic belt of pack-ice we were prepared for all 

 sorts of trials in the way of unfavourable weather condi- 

 tions. We had read and heard so much of what others 

 had had to face in these waters that we involuntarily 

 connected them with all the horrors that may befall a 

 VOL. i. 11 



