IN WINTER QUARTERS. 297 



These odometers we attached to the last sledge in the train. 

 Olsen had made some the previous winter ; and they had proved 

 to be very useful, especially when surveying, as they gave the 

 distance covered with wonderful accuracy. An apparatus of the 

 kind is also a great advantage when driving, as one can see 

 at any moment how far one has gone. On a long sledge-journey 

 it is of course necessary above everything else to save the 

 dogs, and yet do a passable day's march. If, therefore, one finds 

 one's self in very bad ice, where one must work one's way step by 

 step, and then at other times goes spinning over it, it will easily 

 be understood that one cannot very well go by the clock, but 

 must equalize the time as best one can. Here it is that the 

 odometer comes in as an ingenious and accurate regulator of the 

 work. If the going is easy, one puts on the pace to get in a few 

 miles to the good, which one can fall back on when the weather 

 or the going is bad ; if, on the contrary, advance is difficult, one 

 has a known record with which to square the distance. 



Besides the odometer, there were several other instruments 

 which Olsen had to repair, or make anew. He was a most 

 excellent all-round man, and was a good tinsmith, coppersmith, 

 and instrument maker; to say nothing of being a finished gun- 

 smith. 



As I have already mentioned, we brought with us from 

 Norway fifteen elk dogs, but they did not give us much pleasure 

 while in life ; and it was only after their death that they came to 

 honour and glory. Seven of them were eaten by the other dogs, 

 and the survivors, being useless as draught animals, we ourselves 

 despatched to the eternal hunting grounds. They were taken 

 at the right time of year, and out of their beautiful skins we 

 meant to make over-socks and mittens, but first they had to go 

 through Nodtvedt's hands ; not in his capacity as smith, but as 

 tanner. In his skilful hands, too, were all our calf-skins, for, as 

 I wanted to see whether the skin of the polar calf could be made 

 use of in any way, I was having a couple of new bags made of 

 them. For the considerable repairs needed by the old bags we used 

 reindeer-skin. 



All through the first part of the winter Nodtvedt divided his 



