SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD 



almost across the whole globe, to the vicarages in Sealand, which 

 in this moment lie like islands among the trees' green drifts and 

 flowering fruit-trees. We sense the fragrance of flowers, we 

 hear the songs of larks and nightingales, the contented lowing 

 of cows in the meadows, and the happy laughter of merry 

 people celebrating Whitsun in the shady beech forests. 



And we sit here in an ocean of light which blinds our eyes, 

 in the midst of the winter-white Arctic spring, with pure new 

 snow round our feet, the sun-gilded horizon of the glaciers 

 behind the russet mountains, and the cold, bound Polar Sea 

 before us lonely, wandering explorers, with a whole world 

 between us and our relatives and friends. 



Yet we celebrate the day, and with a longing for the fertile 

 south which has so often given nourishment to our thoughts up 

 here on the skull of the world, we eat, materialistic as always, 

 a tin of Mauna Loa, the only one we possess, tinned at Hawaii 

 and exported from Honolulu ; and as we see before us the dark- 

 eyed, garlanded girls who picked the fruits, it is as if we cut 

 through all horizons and conquer the world. 



Hawaii and the Polar Sea, N. Lat. 82° ! 



So we cook the musk-ox meat from Nares Land, drink 

 coffee from Java after the tea from the Congo, and smoke 

 tobacco from Brazil ! 



A glorious Whitsun ! 



TO CAPE WOHLGEMUTH 



In spite of our efforts, we do not succeed in covering those 

 poor 55 kilometres from Dragon Point to Depot Island in less 

 than two days. We have had to drive slowly out of considera- 

 tion for the sick Koch, who is as yet so poorly that he cannot 

 manage long stretches in one run. It seems he cannot stand 

 the complete diet of meat to which we up here are confined ; 

 during the marches weariness and sudden dizziness overwhelm 

 him so that he has to lie down to prevent himself from falling. 

 Fortunately, he takes his illness calmly, and, thanks to his 

 young, strong constitution, he resists it so stubbornly that we 

 are not verv much hampered. He refuses all offers of a halt 



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