24 NEW LAND. 



impenetrable. 'How long is this very unwelcome captivity to 

 continue ? ' we sometimes involuntarily asked ourselves, as we 

 watched wearily for a change in the ice, and brighter prospects for 

 our advance. 



Nor were the dogs very happy in this uncomfortable, raw 

 weather. One mournful howling concert succeeded the other, and 

 it was with the greatest difficulty that we kept them in check, so 

 that the watch below could enjoy their rest in something like peace 

 and quiet. 



During our stay here, one of the dogs, ' Vesta ' by name, gave 

 birth to five fine puppies, and a couple of days later, another, 

 ' Sussaberet,' to a similar number of young ones. In the prevailing 

 circumstances these little events brought some variety into our 

 monotonous life, and we bestowed much attention on the poor 

 little helpless creatures as they lay sprawling and whimpering in 

 their boxes of straw. But one fine day this peaceful idyl was 

 interrupted by a harrowing drama. ' Vesta ' seized a favourable 

 opportunity to steal one of her neighbour's puppies, and although 

 she could not have been hungry she devoured it as completely 

 as if it had been some great delicacy. After this, both the mothers 

 were chained up to prevent the repetition of such scenes. We 

 might, moreover, require the puppies as draught animals. 



The continued thaw had by this made the new ice so rotten that 

 in the evening I determined to make an attempt to force our way 

 through it. From the crow's-nest, moreover, I had seen open water 

 to the west, and it was thither we had to make our way. The 

 ' Fram ' now started at full speed, boring and shouldering herself 

 a passage, brushing one ice-floe here and another there. In this 

 manner we soon forced our way out into a large lead, but it was 

 not long before we were once more in the midst of the drift-ice, 

 and the same troublesome manoeuvring had to begin again. It was 

 slow work with this continual boring, but at last we came out 

 into open water on the morning of August 16, after having been 

 detained six days in the ice. 



It had originally been my intention to go in to Cape York to 

 barter with the Eskimo, and to set up a memorial to Eivind 

 Astrup, in the shape of a marble tablet that one of his friends had 



