A DESERTED COUNTRY. 75 



exhaustion. When he had come on board, and had had a good 

 rest, he told us that at one time, early in the morning, he had 

 been unable to move another step. He had then sat down to 

 rest on a stone, but had not been long there before he felt that 

 sleep was coming on. He knew well enough, however, that he 

 who sleeps in the snow in these latitudes never wakes again, and 

 so he had got up and struggled on, hour after hour, until at last 

 he reached the ' Fram,' and was saved. He never suggested any 

 more night expeditions by himself. 



When we heard that the mate was behind, and in difficulties, 

 some men were at once sent off to Jiis assistance, but they met him 

 on the way, driving quietly along with his load. 



I had long had an idea, if the condition of the ice the following 

 summer should allow of it, of going up through Kane Basin and 

 Robeson Channel, along the west coast of Greenland, as far as 

 the vessel could penetrate. I thought of putting up a hut in 

 which I and three of the others might winter, while the ship 

 returned the same autumn to winter quarters off the coast of 

 Baffin Land. I now made known my plans to the members of 

 the expedition, and set Fosheim and Braskerud to build a hut 

 with materials which we had brought from home. This occupied 

 Fosheim, and Braskerud, too, in great measure, for the whole of 

 the winter. 



