424 XEW LAND. 



on board. They were treated to delicacies of every sort, and many 

 a slice of good' meat found its way down their throats. But 

 although they had ravenous appetites, they never became fatter 

 than what would be called good condition. The fox, on the other 

 hand, was so bad-tempered that nothing could be done with him ; 

 he showed his teeth and snarled if anybody went near him. 



If any dredging at all was to be done this summer it was 

 necessary to make haste, so it was decided that Bay, Simmons, 

 Isachsen, and Peder should start on Monday, July 7, and Schei 

 and I would go with them to the boat, with their provisions and 

 equipment. They were to go first to St. Helena, and then to 

 North Devon, to dredge round Cape Vera. After that they were 

 to try and get up through Cardigan Strait, and about July 20 

 or 21 were to be back in Gaasefjord. If the ' Fram ' had not got 

 out of the fjord by that time they were to row northward along 

 the east shore ; and if they were stopped by ice there, they would 

 have to walk overland, and would then be fetched. 



The thaw was proceeding with giant strides when we drove 

 outwards on Monday the 7th. We were obliged to go out almost 

 into the middle of the fjord before we could pass ' Kadaverelven ' 

 (Corpse River), although a day or two beforehand we could have 

 walked with safety almost anywhere. The ice between the point 

 at Indre Eide to the point at Ytre Eide was good, though very 

 weak. In certain places the water in the pools was so deep that it 

 reached to the calves of our legs when we waded across them. 



In Jones Sound we saw a quantity of ice ; but when Schei and 

 I turned back the next day a wind sprang up from the north, and 

 we hoped that this would carry the ice out to sea. We did not go 

 very quickly, for the dogs were footsore and the ice abominable. 

 At the point inside of the isthmus the fjord-ice was nothing but 

 a thick crust, which we just managed to dash across. Among the 

 stones on Indre Eide we collected some fossils. Here and there 

 a bearded seal was lying on the ice, but without a stalking-sail 

 any attempt to capture one would have been useless. From 

 Kadaverelven, across the fjord, the ice was so weak that we had 

 to keep to the ice-foot along the west shore till we were a little 

 way the other side of the river, and could venture out on the 



