Andree and his Balloon 



make use of it, however, as it was crammed 

 full of Andree's more delicate instruments, gear, 

 etc. I therefore got some help and pitched my 

 camp some half-mile away on the beach. This 

 step I took for several reasons. One was that 

 on account of the very explosive nature of 

 hydrogen gas, the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the balloon would have been impossible, for I 

 could neither have had a smoke nor lighted a 

 fire, in fact, it would have been highly dangerous 

 to light a match in the vicinity. I therefore 

 persuaded a friendly Swede, who was a corre- 

 spondent for one of the leading Swedish news- 

 papers, to accompany me in my desolation. I 

 imagine that few men have lived in a tent much 

 farther north than I did for some time. It was 

 a desolate spot, but across the fjord was the most 

 lovely glacier ; the brilliant blue of this ice-cliff, 

 which must have been one hundred feet high, 

 faced the opening of my tent. If the weather 

 was warmer than usual, huge blocks of ice were 

 perpetually falling into the sea. Many of these 

 must have been thousands of tons in weight, 

 judging from their size and the wave they made 

 after hitting the water. It is extremely dan- 

 gerous to approach the face of such a glacier in 

 a boat. For if a huge berg breaks away from 

 the glacier in the manner described above, the 

 swamping of the boat might easily follow. The 

 glacier cracks, too, with reports as though a 



'57 



