298 NEW LAND. 



time in such a way, that when the weather was very bad he was 

 occupied on the skins, and when it was fine at the forge. There 

 was plenty to be done there too, for he had some large orders to 

 execute. 



The ox-skins were taken in hand by Bay ; of course with 

 plenty of help. They were to be prepared for keeping ; that is to 

 say, the flesh was all scraped away and the leg-bones removed, 

 leaving only the hoofs. Some of the skins were prepared with 

 alum. 



Had any one done us the pleasure of paying us a visit at this 

 time he would probably have thought that the vessel was a work- 

 house ; but all hands worked with such a will, and there was so 

 much singing and joking going on, that, after all, it is hardly 

 fair to compare our occupations on the Tram' with the com- 

 pulsory work of a casual ward. 



Both the cabins were turned into workshops. In the after- 

 cabin were installed the tinsmith's and filing workshops, and 

 there hammering and soldering went on the whole livelong day. 

 The needle was plied as energetically as the coarser instruments, 

 and the handicrafts of tailoring and shoeinaking were well repre- 

 sented. There, too, the sledges were mended, and the plates of the 

 runners put on. In the fore-cabin the work was chiefly the 

 sewing of skins, and making of clothes, tents, dog-harness, and 

 sleeping-bags. In the 'tween decks was Fosheim's carpenter's 

 bench ; and on deck one heard the cheerful sound of hammering 

 from the smithy, and saw the light from the forge through the 

 canvas walls. In fact, one could hardly get about on board for 

 work-people and their appliances, and there was life and bustle 

 there in the bay, even in the midst of the dead season. Between 

 the stitches and the blows of the hammer many a joke was made ; 

 chiefly aft, perhaps, where Nodtvedt in particular kept things 

 going. 



Our winter harbour this time was a very sheltered one, and 

 even when a gale was blowing out on the coast there was hardly 

 a breath of wind in where we were. 



The ventilator which had originally been fixed in the after- 

 cabin of the ' Fram ' was unfortunately not self-adjusting. It was 



