THE FOURTH WINTER AND SPRING. 351 



dogs and polar cattle, and was also very much taken up in the 

 forge. He experimented, among other things, in making different 

 kinds of ice-bores for use when blasting. Again this winter he 

 spent many cold days at the carpenter's bench in the 'tween 

 decks, where he worked early and late, and always equally 

 undaunted. It was the making of measuring boards, packing- 

 cases and boxes for different instraments which this year took up 

 his time, and it is work which requires much care. The steward 

 was equally busy, turning out dainty cakes by the dozen. We 

 were to have a Christmas tree again this year, as decorative as on 

 other occasions. Simmons and Baumann helped by drawing and 

 painting a number of flags. Special mention must be made of a 

 particular flag known as Bay and Lindstrom's. In everyday 

 parlance these two well-fed members of the expedition were 

 mentioned as partners, and on this occasion also they were not 

 divided. Their colours were red, blue, and fat. 



When I mention that every man took his turn in seeing to 

 the fires, that the meteorological watches also went by turn, and 

 that looking after the dogs this year was very little trouble, as 

 they were so extremely peaceable, there remain only two branches 

 of our work at this period to be mentioned the one was 

 industrial, the other literary. A wholly new industry sprang up 

 this winter, for we began to carve in bone. Knife-handles and 

 sheaths of gracefully carved walrus-bone were produced in 

 numbers, and were intended as gifts for friends. 



During this time was also the golden period of the ' Fram ' 

 literature. Bay published a novel, by name ' Gunhild.' Its theme 

 was exceedingly romantic. A party of discoverers went an expe- 

 dition to North Greenland ; after a difficult journey through the 

 ice-desert they reached a large and fruitful oasis, where they met 

 the descendants of the old Norsemen. These had fallen into two 

 inimical races, continually at war with each other. Among the 

 many other rarities which the travellers came across may be 

 mentioned mammoths and rhinoceros. During the writing of it 

 the author showed himself a master in the art of whetting public 

 curiosity. He wrapped himself in the most impenetrable obscurity, 

 and no reliable information leaked out even with regard to the 



