380 NEW LAND. 



of all the new and interesting things this main journey of ours 

 had in store for us. 



In the lighter and clearer air next morning we saw a little 

 island a couple of miles distant. Our way took us to a belt of 

 pressure-ice, and as it appeared that the ice east of the island 

 was better, and that by going that way we should come close 

 under the crack, we at once went ashore to take some bearings. 

 But the compass went entirely wrong, and I might have spared 

 myself the trouble ; there were probably ferriferous stones on the 

 island. 



This was a very interesting little islet. It was quite small in 

 size, not more than two to three hundred yards long, and a hundred 

 yards in width. Along it ran a ridge fifty to a hundred feet high, 

 which was as sharp a,s a scythe. The whole island looked like a 

 moraine-ridge protruding from the sea, though it chiefly consisted 

 of solid rock, strewn over with rounded stones. As far as we 

 could make out the mainland stretched in a north-westerly 

 direction, but outside the imposing Alpine landscape, with its 

 fantastic bluish tops in the distance, lay mile upon mile of low 

 snow-covered land as far as the eye could see. 



After a short stay on the islet we continued driving, now with 

 a course on a challenging little stretch of sand. The going became 

 gradually heavier as we neared the sandbank, but, nevertheless, 

 when we camped in the evening we had, I thought, almost reached 

 the crack, though the weather had thickened so much that it was 

 difficult to distinguish the difference between sea and land. 



Among all the things about which we wondered, there was 

 one in particular which seemed strange to us, and that was 

 that for a long time we had not seen a single bear-track, and 

 only the one fox-track which I have already mentioned. It 

 would not be very amusing if we came to a sudden end of our 

 dog-food. 



On Wednesday, April 18, we had weather to which we were not 

 wholly unused this spring, namely, strong wind and drift. As 

 was our custom, we started at eight in the morning, but it was 

 so thick we could see nothing of our surroundings, though on 

 the whole our progress was not bad, for the wind, which was 



