THE NEW YEAR, iS<pj 69 



During the following days the ice became steadily 

 quieter. In the course of the night of the 9th of January 

 the ice was still slightly cracking and grinding; then it 

 quite subsided, and on the loth of January the report is 

 " ice perfectly quiet, and if it were not for the ridge on 

 the port side one would never have thought there had 

 ever been any breach in the eternal stillness, so calm and 

 peaceful is it." Some men went on cutting away the ice, 

 and little by little we could see it was getting less. Mog- 

 stad and I were busily engaged in the hold with the new 

 sledges, and during this time I also made an attempt to 

 photograph the Frani by moonlight from different points. 

 The results surpassed my expectations ; but as the top of 

 the pressure-ridge had now been cut away, these photos 

 do not give an exact impression of the pack-ice, and of 

 how it came hurtling down upon the Fram. We then put 

 in order our depot on the great hummock on the star- 

 board quarter, and all sleeping-bags, Lapland boots, Finn 

 shoes, wolfskin clothing, etc., were wrapped in the foresail 

 and placed to the extreme west, the provisions were col- 

 lected into six different heaps, and the rifles and guns 

 were distributed among three of the heaps and wrapped 

 up in boat-sails. Next, Hansen's instrument-case and my 

 own, together with a bucketful of rifle-cartridges, were 

 placed under a boat-sail. Then the forge and the smith's 

 tools were arranged separately, and up on the top of the 

 great hummock we laid a heap of sledges and snow-shoes. 

 All the kayaks were laid side by side bottom upward, 



