THE NEW YEAR, iS>ps 43 



packing to the west and northwest, which continued uni- 

 formly for a couple of hours or so. Is this the New- 

 year's greeting from the ice ? 



"We spent New-year's-eve cozily, with a cloudberry 

 punch-bowl, pipes, and cigarettes. Needless to say, there 

 was an abundance of cakes and the like, and we spoke 

 of the old and the new year and days to come. Some 

 selections were played on the organ and violin. Thus 

 midnight arrived. Blessing produced from his apparent- 

 ly inexhaustible store a bottle of genuine ' linje akkevit ' 

 (line eau-de-vie), and in this Norwegian liquor we drank 

 the old year out and the new year in. Of course 

 there was many a thought that would obtrude itself at 

 the change of the year, being the second which we had 

 seen on board the Frain, and also, in all probability, 

 the last that we should all spend together. Naturally 

 enough, one thanked one's comrades, individuallv and 

 collectively, for all kindness and good-fellowship. Hard- 

 ly one of us had thought, perhaps, that the time would 

 pass so well up here. Sverdrup expressed the wish that 

 the journey which Johansen and I were about to make 

 in the coming year might be fortunate and bring success 

 in all respects. And then we drank to the health and 

 well-being in the coming year of those who were to re- 

 main behind on board the Fraiii. It so happened that 

 just now at the turn of the year we stood on the verge 

 of an entirely new world. The wind which whistled up 

 in the rigging overhead was not only wafting us on to 



