350 THE VOYAGE OF THE " FRA^I " 



and blew our powerful siren; nor was it very long 

 before eight men came tearing down. There was great 

 enthusiasm. The first man on board was the Chief; I 

 was so certain he had reached the goal that I never 

 asked him. Not till an hour later, when we had 

 discussed all kinds of other things, did I enquire: 

 " Well, of course you have been at the South Pole?" 



We lay there for a couple of days ; on account of the 

 short distance from Framheim, provisions, outfit, etc., 

 were brought on board. If such great masses of ice had 

 not drifted out in the last few days, it would probably 

 have taken us a week or two to get the same quantity 

 on board. 



At 9.30 p.m. on January 30, 1912, in a thick fog, we 

 took our moorings on board and waved a last farewell 

 to the mighty Barrier. 



VII. 



From the Barrier to Buenos Aires, via Hob art. 



The first day after our departure from the Barrier 

 everything we had taken on board was stowed away, 

 so that one would not have thought our numbers were 

 doubled, or that we had taken several himdred cases 

 and a lot of outfit on board. The change was only 

 noticed on deck, where thirty-nine powerful dogs made 

 an uproar all day long, and in the fore-saloon, which 



