A FAMILIAR VIEW 155 



friendly spot this time, either. True, it was not the 

 same awful weather as on our first visit, but it was 

 blowing a fresh breeze with a temperature of - 9"4° F., 

 which, after the heat of the last few days, seemed 

 to go to one's marrow, and did not invite us to 

 stay longer than was absolutely necessary. Therefore, 

 as soon as we had finished feeding the dogs and putting 

 our sledges in order, we set out. 



Although the ground had not given us the impression 

 of sloping, we soon found out that it did so when we got 

 under way. It was not only downhill, but the pace 

 became so great that we had to stop and put brakes 

 under the sledges. As we advanced, the apparently 

 unbroken wall opened more and more, and showed us at 

 last our old familiar ascent. There lay Mount Ole 

 Engelstad, snowclad and cold, as we saw it the first 

 time. As we rounded it we came on to the severe, 

 steep slope, where, on the way south, I had so much 

 admired the work done by my companions and the dogs 

 that day. But now I had an even better opportunity of 

 seeing how steep this ascent really had been. Many were 

 the brakes we had to put on before we could reduce 

 the speed to a moderate pace, but even so we came 

 down rapidly, and soon the first part of the descent 

 lay behind us. So as not to be exposed to possible 

 gusts from the plain, we went round Mount Engelstad 

 and camped under the lee of it, well content with the 

 day's work. The snow lay here as on our first visit, deep 



