no. ib.] ORIGINAL ACCOUNTS. 11 



hind the other, arising sometimes as far forward as almost amidships 1 . We made loops 

 in our course, turned sometimes right round, tried all sorts of antics to get clear of it, but 

 to very little purpose. The moment the engine stopped, it seemed as if the ship were 

 sucked back. In spite of the Fram's weight, and the momentum she usually has, we could 

 in the present instance, go at full speed till within a fathom or two of the edge of the 

 ice, and hardly feel a shock when she touched. 



"On September 2nd, at last, the boiler was ready. We steamed south in the evening, 

 but were still followed by the dead-water during the whole night. According to Norden- 

 skiold's map, it was only about 20 miles to Taimur Strait but we were the whole night 

 doing this distance. In two watches (8 hours) we hardly advanced 8 miles, the engine 

 constantly working at full speed. Now, the boiler had been cleaned out and filled with 

 fresh water from the surface of the sea, so that the conditions for good speed were very 

 favourable. It may therefore be supposed that the speed was reduced to about a fifth of 

 what it would otherwise have been. 



"At 6 a. m. September 3rd, we got into a thin layer of new sludgy ice, that scraped 

 the dead-water off us. The change was noticeable at once (according to the account of 

 Sverdrdp, who had the watch at that time). As the Fram cut into the ice she gave a 

 sort of spring forward, and after this, went on at her ordinary speed; and henceforth we 

 had very little more trouble with dead-water 2 . The cause of the last fact evidently was 

 that later there was a much stronger current and wind, so that the fresh-water layer at 

 the surface was swept away. During August 30th and the night between 2nd and 3rd 

 September, the speed was rated as 1 knot, in the dead-water." 



No. 2. Even on her way north, the Fram met with dead-water; it was 

 on the By Fjord on going in to Bergen. The Fram on this occasion also, 

 was under steam, but prams and row-boats easily passed by her. Captain 

 S. Scott-Hansen, who had the command at that time, writes about this 

 episode: 



"On the By Fjord at Bergen the Fram got into dead-water about one nautical mile 

 off the mole of the "Vaagen". The speed was considerably reduced. Of exterior, visible 

 phenomena the most remarkable was a stripe, resembling the boundary between a current 

 and still water, and stretching from the bow obliquely aft, as indicated in the sketch Fig. 

 13, PI. IV. We also had an impression of the surface-water round the stern, and in the 

 immediate proximity of the ship's side, being dragged along with the ship. The wake of 

 the ship also varied from its customary appearance, being broader and not showing the 

 regular central line of defined whirls. It looked as if the water set in motion by the 

 propeller, was spread over a much broader space than it is wont to be, and the whole 

 mass of the surface-water in the wake to a distance of 10 or 20 m. from the stern, gave 

 the impression of having a tendency to hang on to the vessel. 



1 For the purpose of illustration Prof. Nansen has drawn a sketch shown by Fig. 1, 

 PI. IV. The lines stretching to the sides of and aft of the vessel represent the crest- 

 lines of long, low waves. 



2 Nansen adds in a note: "It is probable that the fresh surface-layer has been rather 

 thin just where the ice occurred. I have found that ice often is formed on the under 

 side of a fresh surface-layer by the cooling effect of the cold water-layers below (see 

 No. 9 of this report: "The Oceanography of the North Polar Basin" pp. 308-309 as 

 well as the footnote on p. 300). In open water this ice floats up as delicate ice- 

 needles, which melt in the warmer surface-layer; but if the latter be thin enough, 

 they will reach the surface before they have had time to melt, and may even form 

 a crust." 



