OUR LIFE ON BOARD. 77 



not one returned. Here came Greely, with five and twenty men ; 

 six returned. The same year that Nordenskiold wintered in White 

 Bay seventeen Arctic Ocean seamen died of scurvy, in the midst 

 of a superfluity of food. The last of them was found dead, in a 

 sitting posture, dressed in his fur clothes, with mittens on his hands, 

 holding a piece of salt pork. Tins of preserved food were lying, 

 unopened, round about ; but the contents of the salt-meat barrel 

 were half eaten up. 



And yet, in spite of all that had happened, in spite of all the 

 horrors that had been experienced, we felt, on the whole, secure ; 

 for science has triumphed cold and scurvy and hunger need no 

 longer tyrannize over us. I will go even as far as to say that such 

 things ought not often to happen. When they do' occur, it is 

 through the fault of the leader of the expedition, and to his account 

 they must be put down. 



Well, there lay the ' Frarn,' stout and defiant, like a little fairy- 

 house, in the midst of the polar night. It was warm and bright 

 in her cabins, and we worked with a will from morning to night. 

 Up to the middle of November, we made small sledge-expedi- 

 tions, shorter and shorter each time; but at last we were com- 

 pelled to hibernate, and began winter-life in earnest, both aboard 

 and round about the ship. 



Abroad, it was chiefly the building of the kennels, which I have 

 already mentioned, and the transport of walrus-flesh from the 

 Meat-heap, which occupied us. The spot where we had left a 

 quantity of this meat, in the autumn, was situated about a mile 

 from the vessel. When we arrived there, we found that the bears 

 and dogs had played havoc with it, but there was still a fair 

 quantity left, and we set to work at once to bring it away. The 

 worst of it was that it was all frozen together into one large lump, 

 so that we had to turn into stone-masons for the nonce, and ply 

 wedges, crowbars, and sledge-hammers, in order to break the mass 

 asunder. The transport we undertook, at first, in person, but it 

 proved to be a slow and tiring business, and so we pressed the 

 dogs into the cause, when it was done in a very short space of 

 time. 



The dogs, yes ! It is they which give a polar expedition such 



