158 FROM MADEIRA TO THE BARRIER 







one may be, a gulp of hot coffee quickly makes a better 

 man of one; therefore coffee for the night watch was 

 a permanent institution on board the Fram. 



By about Christmas we had reached nearly the 

 150th meridian in lat. 56 S. This left not much 

 more than 900 miles before we might expect to meet 

 with the pack-ice. Our glorious west wind, which had 

 driven us forward for weeks, and freed us from all 

 anxiety about arriving too late, was now a thing of the 

 past. For a change we again had to contend for some 

 days with calms and contrary wind. The day before 

 Christmas Eve brought rain and a gale from the south- 

 west, which was not very cheerful. If we were to keep 

 Christmas with any festivity, fine weather was wanted, 

 otherwise the everlasting rolling would spoil all our 

 attempts. No doubt we should all have got over it 

 if it had fallen to our lot to experience a Christmas Eve 

 with storm, shortened sail, and other delights; worse 

 things had happened before. On the other hand, there 

 was not one of us who would not be the better for 

 a little comfort and relaxation; our life had been 

 monotonous and commonplace enough for a long time. 

 But, as I said, the day before Christmas Eve was not 

 at all promising. The only sign of the approaching 

 holiday was the fact that Lindstrom, in spite of the 

 rolling, was busy baking Christmas cakes. We sug- 

 gested that he might just as well give us each our 

 share at once, as it is well known that the cakes are 



