Andrée and his Balloon 
make use of it, however, as it was crammed 
full of Andrée’s more delicate instruments, gear, 
etc. I therefore got some help and pitched my 
camp some half-mile away on the beach. This 
step I took for several reasons. One was that 
on account of the very explosive nature of 
hydrogen gas, the immediate neighbourhood of 
the balloon would have been impossible, for I 
could neither have had a smoke nor lighted a 
fire, in fact, it would have been highly dangerous 
to light a match in the vicinity. I therefore 
persuaded a friendly Swede, who was a corre- 
spondent for one of the leading Swedish news- 
papers, to accompany me in my desolation. I 
imagine that few men have lived in a tent much 
farther north than I did for some time. It was 
a desolate spot, but across the fjord was the most 
lovely glacier; the brilliant blue of this ice-cliff, 
which must have been one hundred feet high, 
faced the opening of my tent. If the weather 
was warmer than usual, huge blocks of ice were 
perpetually falling into the sea. Many of these 
must have been thousands of tons in weight, 
judging from their size and the wave they made 
after hitting the water. It is extiemely dan- 
gerous to approach the face of such a glacier in 
a boat. For if a huge berg breaks away from 
the glacier in the manner described above, the 
swamping of the boat might easily follow. The 
glacier cracks, too, with reports as though a 
157 
