298 THE VOYAGE OF THE "FRAJVI 



>» 



As the day advanced, the weather cleared more and 

 more, and by noon it was perfectly clear. The sight 

 that then met us was the lofty Barrier to starboard, and 

 elsewhere all round about some fifty icebergs, great and 

 small. The Barrier rose from about 100 feet at its edge 

 to something like 1,200 feet. 



We followed the Barrier for some distance, but in the 

 neighbourhood of Cape Colbeck we met the drift-ice, 

 ajnd as I had no wish to come between this and tha 

 Barrier, we stood out in a north-westerly direction. 

 There is, besides, the disadvantage about a propeller 

 like ours, that it is apt to wear out the brasses, so that 

 these have to be renewed from time to time. It was 

 imperative that this should be done before we came 

 into the pack-ice, and the sooner the better. When, 

 therefore, we had gone along the Barrier for about 

 a day and a half without seeing any bare land, we 

 set our course north-west in open water, and after 

 we had come some way out we got a slant of 

 easterly wind, so that the sails could be set. We 

 saw the snow -covered land and the glare above it all 

 night. 



The date had not yet been changed, but as this had 

 to be done, it was changed on February 15.* 



* A vessel sailing continuously to the eastward puts the clock on 

 every day, one hour for every fifteen degrees of longitude ; one sailing 

 westward puts it back in the same way. In long. 180° one of them 

 has gone twelve hours forward, the other twelve hours back ; the differ- 



