256 DEPOT JOURNEYS , 



that when the depot party returned there was the finest 

 instrument-screen standing ready on the hill, painted 

 white so that it shone a long way off. The wind-vane 

 was a work of art, constructed by our able engineer, 

 Sundbeck. No factory could have supplied a more 

 handsome or tasteful one. In the instrument-screen we 

 had a thermograph, hygrometer, and thermometers. 

 Observations were made at 8 a.m., 2 p.m., and 8 p.m. 

 When I was at home I took them, and when I was 

 away it was Lindstrom's work. 



On the night before April 11 something or other fell 

 down in the kitchen according to Lindstrom,a sure sign 

 that the travellers might be expected home that day. 

 And, sure enough, at noon we caught sight of them up 

 at the starting-place. They came across at such a pace 

 that the snow was scattered all round them, and in an 

 hour's time we had them back. They had much to tell 

 us. In the first place, that everything had been duly 

 taken to the depot in 80 S. Then they surprised me 

 with an account of a fearfully crevassed piece of surface 

 that they had come upon, forty-six and a half miles 

 from the station, where they had lost two dogs. This 

 was very strange; we had now traversed this stretch of 

 surface four times without being particularly troubled 

 with anything of this sort, and then, all of a sudden, 

 when they thought the whole surface was as solid as 



v O 



a rock, they found themselves in danger of coming to 

 grief altogether. In thick weather they had gone too 



