SVERDRUP'S EXPEDITION (1901) 257 



Ringnes Land." The sound between this and the land 

 they had left was named after Hassel. Towards the west 

 and south-west still another land was seen, and was called 

 " King; Christian's Land." The sound between the two 

 latter was called " Danish Sound," and they passed through 

 this and drove north. At the most northern point of 

 the land, the trend began to be east and then south. 

 They followed the coast -line until 20th May, when they 

 saw land in the east, which proved to be " Amund 

 Ringnes Land," the northern point of which they 

 reached on 24th May. They then made for Axel 

 Heiberg Land, and reached Cape South- West on 29th 

 May. 



On the new land they had explored they saw reindeer 

 and ptarmigan, and the tracks of bears, foxes, wolves, 

 and hares. They reached the Fram on 6th June. 



The summer work was now commenced, such as 

 dredging and botanising, and a trip was made to 

 North Devon. 



As summer advanced, the party became anxious about 

 the prospects of the Fram getting free from Gassefiord, 

 as it was intended to return to Norway that year. An 

 attempt was made to bore the ice on 12th August, but 

 it ended in failure. On the 26th the Fram advanced a 

 thousand yards, but on the 27th it could only make 

 three ship's lengths. By 5th September the ship had 

 gone about 10 miles through the ice, but some 6 miles 

 of ice was still between it and the open water. They 

 had now to give up all hope of getting free that year, 

 and had to make preparations to spend their fourth 

 polar night. 



Again the winter was passed in hard work for the 



coming spring. It was intended, in case a ship might 



come into Jones Sound in search of the Fram, to build 



cairns and leave a record of the expedition on Cone 



17 



