70 FARTHEST NORTH 



the cooking apparatus and lamps, etc., being placed under 

 them. They were spread out in this way, so that in the 

 improbable event of the thick floe splitting suddenly our 

 loss would not be so great. We knew where to find 

 everything, and it might blow and drift to its heart s con- 

 tent w^ithout our losing anything. 



On the evening of January 14th I wrote in my diary: 

 " Two sharp reports were heard in the ship, like shots 

 from a cannon, and then followed a noise as of something 

 splitting — presumably this must be the cracking of the 

 ice, on account of the frost. It appeared to me that the 

 list on the ship increased at that moment, but perhaps it 

 was only imagination." 



As time passed on we all gradually got busy again 

 preparing for the sledge expedition. On Tuesday, January 

 15th, I say: "This evening the doctor gave a lesson to 

 Johansen and myself in bandaging and repairing broken 

 limbs. I lay on the table and had a plaster-of- Paris 

 bandage put round the calf of my leg, while all the crew 

 were looking on. The very sight of this operation can- 

 not fail to suggest unpleasant thoughts. An accident of 

 this nature out in the polar night, with 40" to 50''' of 

 cold, would be anything but pleasant, to say nothing of 

 how easily it might mean death to both of us. But who 

 knows } We mioht manao^e somehow. However, such 

 things must not be allowed to happen, and, what is more, 

 they sJiall )wty 



As January went on we could by noon just see the 



