184 NORTHWARD 



way to the place where the Fram lay before the ice 

 broke up was about five times as long as the distance 

 we now had to go. This difference of fourteen days in 

 the time of the disappearance of the ice in two summers 

 showed us how lucky we had been to choose that par- 

 ticular year — 1911 — for our landing here. The work 

 which we carried out in three weeks in 1911, thanks to 

 the early breaking up of the ice, would certainly have 

 taken us double the time in 1912, and would have caused 

 us far more difficulty and trouble. 



The thick fog that, as I have said, lay over the Bay of 

 Whales when we left it, prevented us also from seeing 

 what our friends the Japanese were doing. The Kainan 

 Maru had put to sea in company with the Fram during 

 the gale of January 27, and since that time we had seen 

 nothing of them. Those members of the expedition 

 who had been left behind in a tent on the edge of the 

 Barrier to the north of Framlieim had also been very 

 retiring of late. On the day we left the place, one of 

 our own party had an interview with two of the 

 foreigners. Prestrud had gone to fetch the flag that 

 had been set up on Cape Man's Head as a signal to the 

 Fram that all had returned. By the side of the flag 

 a tent had been put up, which was intended as a shelter 

 for a lookout man, in case the Fram had been delayed. 

 When Prestrud came up, he was no doubt rather sur- 

 prised to find himself face to face with two sons of 

 Nippon, who were engaged in inspecting our tent and 



