BEFORE THE POLAR NIGHT. 101 



spring if, before we began on it, we could know a little about the 

 country up there. But the weather put a stop to all such plans, 

 though for that matter we should have met with nothing but open 

 water across Norskebugten. The little strip of ice we had seen 

 along the shore on the way from Nofdstrand had, of course, long 

 since been swept away. 



Our smiths, Nb'dtvedt and Peder, had been busily engaged 

 making bars of steel to be put as plates under the sledges. This 

 task accomplished, Peder had some screws and nuts to groove, and 

 when a sufficient quantity had been done he, Stolz, and Hassel 

 began on the kennels. Bay, who was preparing the ox-skins, put 

 off his work and joined the builders, returning to it again later, 

 with the assistance of the mate, Peder, Hassel, and Stolz. Fosheim 

 and Nodtvedt shod the sledges ; among them being a new sledge 

 made by Fosheim. As he had also mended up our old ' water- 

 sledge,' we had now two steel-plated sledges which could be 

 used for transporting meat across the neck. For the other sledges 

 which were to be used for this purpose, he made wooden over- 

 runners, and later on built two more transport sledges on the 

 same principle. 



On October 27 we had fairly reasonable weather ; so far fine, 

 at any rate, that we saw the sun at midday, though it only just 

 rose above Middagskollen. Even if we had clear weather the 

 next day, the sun would hardly be visible above the hill, but 

 as it was quite unthinkable that we should have two fine days 

 in succession, so inclement as the weather had been all the 

 autumn, we thought we might as well bid farewell to it on 

 the 27th. 



The following day Isachsen and Schei came on board. They 

 had camped at the eastern cape, and had been out early and late 

 on the look-out for game, but the protracted bad weather had 

 destroyed every hope of a bag. They had not shot a single animal, 

 and despite unremitting scanning, had not seen more than one- 

 animal a fox since they left the ship. It was the only living 

 thing they had set eyes on the whole of their expedition, except 

 the dogs and themselves. 



On arriving at Jones Sound they had found the sea free of ice 



