342 THE VOYAGE OF THE " FRAM " 



as one nears the pack. For two days we sailed simply 

 by the lumps of ice; the more of them we saw, the 

 more easterly was our course, until they began to 

 decrease, when we steered more to the south. In 

 this way we went in forty-eight hom'S from lat. 65° S. 

 and long. 174° E. to lat. 69° S. and long. 178° E., 

 a distance of about two hundred and fifty nautical 

 miles, without entering the pack. Once we very 

 nearlj^ went into the trap, but fortunately got out 

 again. The wind was so fresh that we did as much as 

 eight and a half knots; when sailing at such a rate 

 through a loose stream of ice, we sometimes ran upon a 

 floe, which went under the ship's bottom, and came up 

 alongside the other way up. 



During the afternoon of the 31st the streams of ice 

 became closer and closer, and then I made the mistake 

 of continuing to sail to the eastward; instead of this, 

 I ought to have stood off, and steered due south or 

 to the west of south, with this ice on our poj't side. 

 The farther we advanced, the more certain I was that 

 we had come into the eastern pack-ice. It must be 

 remembered, however, that owing to fog and thick 

 snow we had seen nothing for over two days. Observa- 

 tions there were none, of course; our speed had varied 

 between two and eight and a half knots, and we had 

 steered all manner of courses. That our dead reckoning 

 was not very correct in such circimistances goes with- 

 out saying, and an observation on January 2 showed 



