376 NEW LAND. 



of the winter, for the blocks still retained their sharp edges and 

 jagged surfaces where they had been broken off; whereas if they 

 had been subjected to the heat of the summer sun, their outlines 

 would have been more rounded. 



Towards evening the weather grew rather dark and thick, 

 and so we camped in good time on a point whence the land 

 seemed again to trend in an easterly direction. Still it was 

 our opinion that this was nothing but a bay, and that with a 

 return of clear weather we should see it going in the same 

 direction as before. We had a very pleasant evening in the tent, 

 not the less so because the weather was still, and we could sit in 

 peace without the ceaseless disquiet of the wind. 



On Easter Monday, when I went up to the crack to fetch the 

 dogs, I climbed a huge pressure-ridge to see if T could get a view 

 over the ice, the weather being now sufficiently clear for this to 

 be possible. It proved, as we had thought, that the land ran on 

 in the same direction, and that our way led across a large bay, 

 the breadth of which we subsequently put down at fifty to sixty 

 miles. While I was standing up there scanning the country, I 

 suddenly became aware of something greyish-blue far away in 

 the west. What could it be ? It must be new land. Yes, yes 

 it was ! But the looming was so great that it was impossible 

 to gain any idea of what it was like, or of its distance away ; 

 this might be much greater than it appeared to be, for the 

 looming is frequent even of land which is actually beyond one's 

 range of vision. 



When I came down to the loads again, I told the others of 

 my great discovery. After a short council, we agreed exactly 

 reversing our original plan that Isachsen and Hassel should 

 go west, to pay the new land a visit; while Fosheim and I 

 continued the chief route northward. On their return from the 

 journey west they were to see whether any sound penetrated 

 east into the land from the big bay we were now lying on, and, 

 if they failed to find one, were to drive back southward along 

 the land, going into the large fjords on the south coast, east 

 of Cape South- West. 



