THE NEW YEAR, 1895 63 



smashed and buried, and would disappear; but the pyg- 

 mies have built their nutshell so cleverly that it alwavs 

 keeps afloat, and wriggles itself free from the deadlv 

 embrace. The old traditions and legends about giants, 

 about Thor's battles in the Jotunheim, when rocks 

 were split and crags were hurled about, and the val- 

 leys were filled with falling boulders, all come back to 

 me when 1 look at these mighty ridges of ice wind- 

 ing their way far off in the moonlight ; and when I see 

 the men standing on the ice - heap cutting and dig- 

 ging to remove a fraction of it, then they seem to me 

 smaller than pygniies, smaller than ants ; but although 

 each ant carries only a single fir-needle, yet in course of 

 time they build an ant-hill, where they can live comfort- 

 ably, sheltered from storm and winter. 



" Had this attack on the Fj^ani been planned by the 

 aid of all the wickedness in the world, it could not have 

 been a worse one. The floe, seven feet thick, has borne 

 down on us on the port side, forcing itself up on the ice, 

 in which we are lying, and crushing it down. Thus the 

 Fram was forced down with the ice, while the other floe, 

 packed up on the ice beneath, bore down on her, and 

 took her amidships while she was still frozen fast. As 

 far as I can judge, she could hardly have had a tighter 

 squeeze; it was no wonder that she groaned under it; 

 but she withstood it, broke loose, and eased. Who 

 shall say after this that a vessel's shape is of little con- 

 sequence ? Had the Fram not been designed as she was, 



