SECOND JOURNEY 227 



took his off; and if there was a question of which was 

 right, each was prepared to defend his idea to the last. 

 These were all alterations of minor importance, but 

 being due to individual judgment, they helped to raise 

 the spirits and increase self-confidence. Patents for 

 braces also became the fashion. I invented one myself, 

 and was very proud of it for a time indeed, I had the 

 satisfaction of seeing it adopted by one of my rivals. But 

 that rarely happened; each of us wanted to make his 

 own inventions, and to be as original as possible. Any 

 contrivance that resembled something already in use 

 was no good. But we found, like the farmer, that the 

 old way often turned out to be the best. 



%? 



By the evening of February 21 we were again 

 ready to start. The sledges seven in number stood 

 ready packed, and were quite imposing in appearance. 

 Tempted by the favourable outcome of our former trip, 

 we put too much on our sledges this time on some 

 of them, in any case. Mine was overloaded. I had 

 to suffer for it afterwards or, rather, my noble 

 animals did. 



On February 22, at 8.30 a.m., the caravan moved 

 off eight men, seven sledges, and forty-two dogs and 

 the most toilsome part of our whole expedition began. 

 As usual, we began well from Framheim. Lindstrom, 

 who was to stay at home alone and look after things, 

 did not stand and wave farewells to us. Beaming with 

 joy, he made for the hut as soon as the last sledge was 



