306 THE VOYAGE OF THE " FRAM " 



that to wake them. When I afterwards asked one of 

 them — I think it was Beck — what made them think of 

 coming up, he rephed that they thought we were going to 

 run into an iceberg and were trying to get out of the way. 



It has haj)pened at night that I have seen the ice- 

 bhnk as far off as eight miles, and then there is nothing 

 to fear; but sometimes in the middle of the dav we 

 have sailed close to icebergs that have only been seen a 

 few minutes before we were right on them. As the 

 voyage was long, we sailed as fast as we could, as a rule ; 

 but on two or three nights we had to reduce our way to 

 a minimum, as we could not see much farther than the 

 end of the bowsprit. 



After two or three weeks' sailing the icebergs began 

 gradually to decrease, and I hoped we should soon come 

 to the end of them; but on Sundaj^ ]March 5, when it 

 was fairly clear, we saw about midday a whole lot of big 

 bergs ahead. One of the watch below, who had just 

 come on deck, exclaimed: "What the devil is this 

 beastly mess yon fellows have got into?" He might well 

 ask, for in the course of that afternoon we passed no less 

 than about a hundred bergs. They were big tabular 

 bergs, all of the same height, about 100 feet, or about as 

 high as the crow's-nest of the Fram. The bergs were 

 not the least worn, but looked as if they had calved 

 quite recently. As I said, it was clear enough, we even 

 got an observation that day (lat. 61° S., long. 150° W.), 

 and as we had a west wind, we twisted quite elegantly 



