166 THE RETURN TO FRAMHEIM 



and speed that could be desired. Bjaaland, who had 

 occupied the position of forerunner all the way from 

 the Pole, performed his duties admirably; but the old 

 saying that nobody is perfect applied even to him. 

 None of us — no matter who it may be — can keep in a 

 straight line, when he has no marks to follow. All 

 the more difficult is this when, as so often happened 

 with us, one has to go blindly. Most of us, I suppose, 

 would swerve now to one side, now to the other, and 

 possibly end, after all this groping, by keeping pretty 

 well to the line. Not so with Bjaaland; he was a 

 right-hand man. I can see him now; Hanssen has 

 given him the direction by compass, and Bjaaland 

 turns round, points his ski in the line indicated and 

 sets off with decision. His movements clearly show 

 that he has made up his mind, cost what it may, to 

 keep in the right direction. He sends his ski firmly 

 along, so that the snow spurts from them, and looks 

 straight before him. But the result is the same; if 

 Hanssen had let Bjaaland go on without any correction, 

 in the course of an hour or so the latter would probably 

 liave described a beautiful circle and brought himself 

 back to the spot from which he had started. Perhaps, 

 after all, this was not a fault to complain of, since we 

 always knew with absolute certaintj^ that, when we had 

 got out of the line of beacons, we were to the right of 

 it and had to search for the beacons to the west. Tliis 

 conclusion proved very useful to us more than once, 



