WESTWARD WITH THE SHIP. 55 



the bows told us that the ice had parted round the Tram.' 

 Everything passed so noiselessly and insidiously, that before we 

 realized what had happened, we were lying as free as if we had 

 never been nipped in the ice. Another transformation scene 

 then took place, and that with celerity; in a remarkably short 

 space of time the ice fell into rubble, and of the large continuous 

 mass there was soon left nothing but small detached fragments. 



It was now a matter of saving whatever could be saved, and 

 we had to put our backs into it if anything of the kind was 

 to be done. The smithy, forge, anvil, and tools were conveyed 

 on board without mishap. Then came the dogs, which were 

 drifting off on another floe. We moored to it, and the work of 

 taking them on board was at once begun, occasioning, needless 

 to say, a vast amount of clamour and howling. Some of them 

 were so delighted at the prospect of getting on board that they 

 would not wait their turn, but jumped into the water so as to 

 reach the vessel more quickly. They had to be fished out when 

 they reached the edge of the ice, and were hauled up dripping on 

 deck, where a vast deal of shaking then took place. 



In the end all the dogs were brought safely on board, but not 

 without a good deal of trouble. Meanwhile, however, we were 

 moving steadily south-westward with the floe, while that proud 

 structure, our forge, drifted farther and farther away! If only 

 we could have recovered the precious materials we had expended 

 on the roof! But the distance grew greater and greater, and to 

 reach it now was out of the question. We might be glad, however, 

 that we were drifting landward again, for it would be a bad busi- 

 ness if our folk ashore were unable to reach us. It would be long 

 before we could drive between the ship and land, and as things now 

 were, to use a boat was an impossibility. 



During the course of the day we managed to rescue the sounding 

 apparatus which Isachsen and Peder were using when the crack 

 came, though only in the nick of time. 



In the evening about ten o'clock the wind suddenly veered 

 round to the south-west and increased to a gale. This was a pretty 

 state of affairs ! The storm wailed arid whistled around us ; the 

 snow lashed our faces. We, of course, drifted the way the wind 



