286 A DAY AT FRAMHEIM 



light here at the darkest time of the year, so there 

 is not the absolute darkness that people think. The 

 tent that stands behind there contains dried fish; we 

 have a great deal of that commodity, and our dogs can 

 never suffer hunger. But now we must hurry on, if we 

 are to see how the day begins at Framheim. 



' What we are passing now is the mark-flag. We 

 have five of them standing between the camp and the 

 depot; they are useful on dark days, when the east 

 wind is blowing and the snow falling. And there on 

 the slope of the hill you see Framheim. At present 

 it looks like a dark shadow on the snow, although it is 

 not far away. The sharp peaks you see pointing to the 

 sky are all our dog tents. The hut itself you cannot 

 see; it is completely snowed under and hidden in the 

 Barrier. 



" But I see you are getting warm with walking. We 

 will go a little more slowly, so that you won't perspire 

 too much. It is not more than - 51, so you have 

 every reason to be warm walking. With that tempera- 

 ture and calm weather like to-day one soon feels warm 

 if one moves about a little. . . . The flat place we 

 have now come down into is a sort of basin; if you 

 bend down and look round the horizon, you will be able 

 with an effort to follow the ridges and hummocks the 

 whole w r ay round. Our house lies on the slope we are 

 now approaching. We chose that particular spot, as 

 we thought it would offer the best protection, and it 



