284 NEW LAND. 



hut. It was in reality a wooden frame covered with sailcloth, and 

 was fourteen feet long and ten broad. It was Fosheim and 

 Nodtvedt's task to put the forge into full working order. 



The kennels we built under the ship's side, which thus formed 

 one of the. walls. They were furthermore built of blocks of ice 

 bound together by slush, which we made by mixing snow and 

 water, the latter procured by boring a hole in the ice. We pressed 

 this binding material in between the blocks with a spade, and the 

 whole formed a compact mass. Inside the kennels, along two of the 

 walls, we fixed benches of wood a couple of feet from the ground. 



In the midst of all this work we did not forget the beauty of 

 the Arctic night, which unfolded itself in all its most enchanting 

 splendour just at this time, when the moon was at its full, and 

 shed its glittering brilliance on the scene both night and day. A 

 moonlight night up there in the north is something infatuating. 

 The effects of light and shade are so sharp ; the transition from 

 black to white so abrupt while the snow and ice seem twice as 

 white, the clefts and chasms twice as black. Skreia in particular 

 was very imposing, with its black irregularities and perpendicular 

 walls. I managed to get several good moonlight photographs of 

 this beautiful scenery. 



Before we finally began to hibernate, it was necessary to fetch 

 the rest of the meat and skins which were still lying at Sydkap- 

 fjord. The mate was very anxious to try the double tent, of which 

 he had heard so much, and accordingly, on November 17, about 

 eight in the morning, he, Fosheim, and Simmons started off to 

 fetch the meat. They were not to return till the following day, 

 and as they had so much time at their disposal, they hoped to 

 have a bear-hunt on their own account out on Sydkapfjord. 

 There were always bears, however, prowling about the ship and 

 the Meat-heap, and not a few of them had made intimate acquaint- 

 ance with our rifles. Our fellows came back again all well on the 

 18th, but the bears had wisely kept out of their way. 



Now that all the meat had been brought on board, we saw that 

 the loads we had driven from Moskusfjord, and which com- 

 prised all the meat we had out there, were by no means small. 

 Fosheim's load had weighed 760 Ibs., Simmons 666 Ibs., and mine 



