30 THE START FOR THE POLE 



favourites, and had probably taken it into their heads 

 that they ought to go back and look after their friend. 

 It was a great loss to us all, but especially to Bjaaland; 

 they were all three first-rate animals, and among the 

 best we had. He had to borrow a dog from Hanssen's 

 team, and if he did not go quite so smoothly as before, 

 he was still able to keep up. 



On the 10th we got a bearing of the mountain chain 

 right down in south by west true. Each day we drew 

 considerably nearer the land, and could see more and 

 more of its details : mighty peaks, each loftier and wilder 

 than the last, rose to heights of 15,000 feet. What 

 struck us all were the bare sides that many of these 

 mountains showed; we had expected to see them far 

 more covered with snow. Moimt Fridtjof Nansen, for 

 example, had quite a blue-black look. Only quite at 

 the summit was it crowned by a mighty hood of ice 

 that raised its shining top to some 15,000 feet. Farther 

 to the south rose Mount Don Pedro Christophersen ; it 

 was more covered with snow, but the long, gabled 

 summit was to a great extent bare. Still farther south 

 Mounts Alice Wedel Jarlsberg, Alice Gade, and Ruth 

 Gade, came in sight; all snow-clad from peak to base. 

 I do not think I have ever seen a more beautiful or 

 wilder landscape. Even from where we were, we 

 seemed to be able to see a way up from several places. 

 There lay Liv's Glacier,* for instance, which would 

 * Named after Dr. Nansen's daughter. — Tr. 



