278 PREPARING FOR WINTER 



space not only for all our equipment, but also for a 

 workshop. From it a door led into a very small room, 

 where Wisting set up his sewing-machine and worked 

 on it all through the winter. Continuing in a north- 

 easterly direction, we came to another big room, called 

 the Crystal Palace, in which all the ski and sledging 

 cases were stored. Here all the provisions for the sledge 

 journey were packed. For the time being this room 

 remained separate from the others, and we had to go 

 out of doors to reach it. Later, when Lindstrom had 

 dug out an enormous hole in the Barrier at the spot 

 where he took all the snow and ice for cooking, we con- 

 nected this with the two rooms last mentioned, and 

 were thus finally able to go everywhere under the snow. 



The astronomical observatory had also arisen; it lay 

 right alongside the Crystal Palace. But it had an 

 air of suffering from debility, and before very long it 

 passed peacefully away. Prestrud afterwards invented 

 many patents ; he used an empty barrel for a time as a 

 pedestal, then an old block of wood. His experience of 

 instrument-stands is manifold. 



All these undertakings were finished at the beginning 

 of May. One last piece of work remained, and then at 

 last we should be ready. This was the rebuilding of 

 the depot. The small heaps in which the cases were 

 piled proved unsatisfactory, as the passages between the 

 different piles offered a fine site for snow-drifts. All 

 the cases were now taken out and laid in two long rows, 



