426 NEW LAND. 



round the ship so that the dogs, which had been taken ashore 

 when the ship was freed, saw their way to paying us daily visits. 

 It was often difficult for them to get ashore again, but they insisted 

 on coming out to us, greatly as they disliked the water, and despite 

 the duckings they took now and again as they jumped from block 

 to block, with a long swim at the end. 



Two or three days after we got free we were able to row 

 inwards as far as Middagskollen, whence the fjord was ice-free to 

 its head. 



Schei went a trip in the shore-boat to ' Kollen ' and Skrabe- 

 dalen, where he shot some geese, ptarmigan, and sea-fowl, and 

 after that went on to Borgen. Inside of this there was little ice 

 left, but outside the floes were closely packed, having probably, 

 for the greater part, been driven into the fjord from Jones Sound, 

 by the south wind. 



On July 19 the breeze freshened, and very nearly drove us 

 ashore. On Sunday, the 20th, all hands were busy with the clearing 

 work, and later in the evening we lighted the fires, as the ice 

 was jamming hard. By four or five in the morning steam was up, 

 we shipped the dogs, and tried to heave off. We went full speed 

 ahead, and heaved at the anchor chain as much as the winch 

 would stand, but the nip was so severe that we only got in an 

 inch now and again, and often had to go down on the ice to saw 

 the floes across under the bows. We worked long and hard before 

 we succeeded in getting up the anchor, and could begin to force 

 ourselves from land. We aimed at a large land channel on the 

 west shore, but had to give it up in mid-fjord, and remained lying 

 by the side of one of the bigger floes, drifting in the strong wind 

 some way up the fjord along with the pack. We had nothing to 

 fear, for we were lying well clear of land, and Baumann and I 

 divided the night-watches between us so that the rest of the crew 

 might get some sleep. They had been working since early morning. 



With a slacker wind next morning we went up into the lane 

 by the west shore, followed it out to the point north of Indre Eide, 

 and anchored in a little bay inside the point. But twenty-four 

 hours later an enormous floe, which was drifting out of the fjord 

 with the current, laid itself straight across the bows, and we had 



