THE NEW YEAR, i8gs 73 



faint dawn of day — that day at whose sunrise we were to 

 start. On January i8th I say; "By 9 o'clock in the 

 morning I could already distinguish the first indications 

 of dawn, and by noon it seemed to be getting bright ; 

 but it seems hardly credible that in a month's time there 

 will be light enough to travel by, yet it must be so. 

 True, February is a month which all ' experienced ' peo- 

 ple consider far too early and much too cold for trav- 

 elling; hardly any one would do so in the month of 

 March, But it cannot be helped ; we have no time to 

 waste in waiting for additional comfort if we are to make 

 any progress before the summer, when travelling will be 

 impossible. I am not afraid of the cold ; we can always 

 protect ourselves against that. 



" Meantime all preparations are proceeding, and I am 

 now getting everything in order connected with copying 

 of diaries, observation-books, photographs, etc., that we 

 are to take with us. Mogstad is working in the hold 

 making maple guard-runners to put under the sledges. 

 Jacobsen has commenced to put a new sledge together. 

 Pettersen is in the engine-room, makinor nails for the 

 sledge -fittings, which Mogstad is to put on. In the 

 meantime some of the others have built a large forge out 

 on the ice with blocks of ice and snow, and to-morrow 

 Sverdrup and I will heat and bend the runners in tar 

 and stearin e at such a heat as we can produce in the 

 forge. We trust we shall be able to get a sufficient tem- 

 perature to do this important work thoroughly, in spite 



