ACROSS ELLESMERE LAND. 143 



but it soon went over to a violent gale from the south, which 

 continued for several days. On April 14, it began to clear, but 

 the wind was as high as ever. I wrote in my diary : ' if only it 

 would go on blowing a bit longer we might get up to North 

 Greenland, and a happy day it will be for me when I succeed 

 in getting the " Fram " there. It will be the greatest festival we 

 have yet had; and for me, at any rate, a day of mark in 

 my life.' If we were in luck, and fell in with the 'Fram' 

 at Cape Sabine later in the summer, as we had planned, we should 

 then have the choice of going home in the autumn of 1900, or 

 of wintering on board and mapping some of the big fjords, the 

 inner parts of which were as yet unknown. 



It was one of our daily tasks at this time to go by turns to 

 the top of a neighbouring hill, which we had named ' Krings- 

 sjaa,' * to keep an eye on the condition of the ice. Things did not 

 look very promising at first, and even as late as April 15 I had 

 not discovered more than a single lead. 



* Kringsjaa, or rundskue, a panoramic view. 



