170 THE RETURN TO FRAJMHEIM 



being, we had to console ourselves with the fact that 

 we could see no continuation of the trail northward. 



We permitted ourselves a little feast here in 82°. 

 The " chocolate pudding " that Wisting served as 

 dessert is still fresh in my memory; we all agreed 

 that it came nearer perfection than anything it had 

 hitherto fallen to our lot to taste. I may disclose the 

 receipt: biscuit-crumbs, dried milk and chocolate are 

 put into a kettle of boiling water. What happens after- 

 wards, I don't know; for further information apply to 

 Wisting. Between 82° and 81° we came into our old 

 marks of the second depot journey; on that trip we had 

 marked this distance with splinters of packing-case at 

 every geographical mile. That was in March, 1911, 

 and now we were following these splinters in the second 

 half of January, 1912. Apparently they stood exactly 

 as they had been put in. This marldng stopped in 

 81° 33' S., with two pieces of case on a snow pedestal. 

 The pedestal was still intact and good. 



I shall let my diary describe what we saw on 

 January 18: "Unusually fine weather to-day. Light 

 south-south-west breeze, which in the course of our march 

 cleared the whole sky. In 81° 20' we came abreast of 

 our old big pressure ridges. We now saw far more 

 of them tlian ever before. They extended as far as the 

 eye could see, running north-east to south-west, in ridges 

 and peaks. Great was our surprise when, a short time 

 after, we made out high, bare land in the same direction, 



