222 NEW LAND. 



The second party consisted of Isachsen, Fosheim, Stolz, and 

 myself. We started with a stiff breeze from the east and hoped 

 for a good sail westward, but already half-way up the fjord the 

 wind dropped and it began to rain. Later in the afternoon, the 

 rain went over to sleet and fog, so that we could not see a cable's - 

 length from us. We rowed through the western sound between 

 land and Skreia, but the weather was so thick that we dared not 

 set out on the broad ' Sydkapfjord ' (South Cape Fjord), as we 

 knew that a mass of drift-ice was lying inside it. We, therefore, 

 landed on the point, our clothes wet through from the miserable 

 weather. There we crept under some rocks, where, with the sail 

 spread over us, we were in tolerable shelter from the rain. We 

 brought up the ' Primus ' and cooked ourselves some food, and 

 among other things a hare, which Fosheim had shot on a point of 

 rock as we rowed past. 



We sat under the rocks for a couple of hours and waited for 

 the weather to clear, but instead of that it merely grew rather 

 thicker. As we could do nothing on the fjord in such weather, we 

 decided to row across to Skreia and see something of the land. 



We hauled the boat up into the bed of a stream, which we 

 thought was a good enough harbour in such quiet weather, and 

 then encamped on the shingle close by, spreading the sail of the 

 boat over the tent, to protect ourselves as well as we could against 

 all the penetrating damp. About nine in the evening, just as we 

 were sitting and lying about in melancholy rumination on the 

 downpour outside, a violent gust of wind struck the walls of 

 the tent, and a moment later a gale had sprung up from the south. 

 We were out of the tent in a very short space of time, for it was 

 on the point of falling on us. I ran down to the stream to look 

 after the boat, and it seemed to me to be lying as safely as 

 possible. We had in it a store of patent food for the dogs, and 

 about 160 Ibs. of bread, in two watertight tin boxes. 



All night long we heard the sea moaning and breaking on the 

 shore, but we felt quite at ease about the boat, and slept soundly 

 till late in the morning, lulled by the monotonous song of the 

 waves. 



We awoke to find things very different from what we had 



