400 NEW LAND. 



the other. The lowest one in the ring was missing, as the sun was 

 very low ; had it been high enough we should doubtless have seen 

 eight mock-suns in all. Several times before I had seen the same 

 phenomenon, but it is of rare occurrence. When we camped that 

 day we had driven nearly fourteen miles. 



Wednesday, May 2, began with calm foggy weather, but in the 

 afternoon it cleared a little, and on the whole was the best day we 

 had had for a long time. Advance was comparatively easy, and 

 this put new life and courage into the dogs. 



Before we began to drive in the morning we split my bag up 

 the middle, so that each had a half to lie on, and Fosheim's was 

 left behind. For several days we had been lying outside the bags 

 in only our wolf-skin clothing, and it answered so well that we 

 thought it unnecessary to drag the second bag with us and that a 

 single thickness of reindeer-skin would be quite enough for us to 

 sleep on until our return. The temperature had been fairly equal 

 of late, keeping at about - 15 to - 18 Fahr. ( - 26 to - 28 Cent.), 

 and although to-day the air was still, the temperature had not 

 sunk as it usually did when the wind went down. If only we 

 had not had all this dreadful loose snow we should have got on 

 well enough. 



The coast~ now appeared to trend due north. The meridian 

 altitude that day gave us a latitude of 80 31^'. 



May 3 on the whole was calm, with now and then a slight 

 breeze from the north. We drove across the bay on snow which 

 was in the same bad condition as before, and followed for several 

 hours a terrible way alongside the point ; it seemed as if it would 

 never end, and it was as much as we could do to get along at all. 

 When, after incredible toil, we had managed to round the point we 

 made the great discovery that the land continued in the same 

 direction as before, though perhaps a little more to the east about 

 north by east. 



Another very large bay now lay in front of us, and again we 

 started to toil through loose snow, camping in the evening out on 

 the bay. The hopes we had cherished of improvement when we 

 had passed the point were as thoroughly crushed as they well could 

 be. Certainly this was growing monotonous. 



