230 



NEW LAND. 



warmed it up it got burnt again, and what it then tasted like 

 baffles description. I moved that this soup be thrown out, 

 but Fosheim and Isachsen were so hungry that the motion was 

 thrown out and not the soup. They would get it down somehow, 

 they said. Before such heroism I could only be silent, and we set 

 to work on it and on the meat unflinchingly. I think none of us 

 will feel inclined to dispute the fact that it was more fearfully 

 and wonderfully disgusting than anything we had ever swallowed 



FOSHEIMS2ETEK AND ITS BUILDEK. 



before, and, one way and another, we had eaten a good many 

 unappetizing dishes up there. The cooking-pot, too, had to be 

 emptied, as it was wanted for something else the next morning ! 

 It had never occurred to me before what a ' giant's kettle ' we had 

 brought up to Ellesmere Land with us. When the deed was done, 

 and we had laid our spoons aside, we looked solemnly at one 

 another, strengthened by our common misfortune and the know- 

 ledge that there were yet men in Norway. Ever afterwards, when 

 in similar circumstances anybody demurred to finishing the con- 

 tents of the cooking-pot, he was always asked, ' Do you think you 



