LAST DEPOT JOURNEY 255 



most beautiful weather to begin their journey dead 

 calm and brilliantly clear. At seven o'clock that morn- 

 ing-, when I came out of the hut, I saw a sight so 

 beautiful that I shall never forget it. The whole 

 surroundings of the station lay in deep, dark shadow, in 

 lee of the ridge to the east. But the sun's rays reached 

 over the Barrier farther to the north, and there the 

 Barrier lay golden red, bathed in the morning sun. It 

 glittered and shone, red and gold, against the jagged 

 row of mighty masses of ice that bounds our Barrier on 

 the north. A spirit of peace breathed over all. But 

 from Framheim the smoke ascended quietly into the 

 air, and proclaimed that the spell of thousands of years 

 was broken. 



The sledges were heavily loaded when they went 

 southward. I saw them slowly disappear over the ridge 

 by the starting-place. It was a quiet time that followed 

 after all the work and hurry of preparation. Not that 

 we two who stayed at home sat still doing nothing. We 

 made good use of the time. The first thing to be done 

 was to put our meteorological station in order. On 

 April 1 all the instruments were in use. In the kitchen 

 were hung our two mercury barometers, four aneroids, 

 barograph, thermograph, and one thermometer. They 

 were placed in a well-protected corner, farthest from the 

 stove. We had no house as yet for our outside instru- 

 ments, but the sub-director went to work to prepare one 

 as quickly as possible, and so nimble were his hands 



