IV£ SAV GOOD-BYE TO THE '' ERAM" 141 



by the rays of the sun, and again in the winters covered 

 with great drifts of snow, so that they assume forms 

 which resemble ice-hills rather than piles of sea-ice result- 

 ing from upheaval. 



Wednesday, March 20th, my diary says : " Beautiful 

 weather for travelling in, with fine sunsets ; but somewhat 

 cold, particularly in the bag, at nights (it was —41.8° and 

 —43.6° Fahr., or —41° and —42° C). The ice appears to 

 be getting more even the farther w'e advance, and in some 

 places it is like travelling over ' inland ice.' If this goes 

 on the whole thing will be done in no time." That day 

 we lost our odometer, and as we did not find it out till 

 some time afterwards, and I did not know how far we 

 might have to go back, I thought it was not worth while 

 to return and look for. It was the cause, however, of our 

 only being able subsequently to guess approximately at 

 the distance we had gone during the day. We had 

 another mishap, too, that day. This was that one of the 

 dogs (it was " Livjaegeren") had become so ill that he 

 could not be driven any longer, and we had to let him go 

 loose. It was late in the day before we discovered that 

 he was not with us ; he had stopped behind at our camp- 

 ing-ground when we broke up in the morning, and I had 

 to go back after him on snow-shoes, which caused a long 

 delay. 



"Thursday, March 21st. Nine in the morning, -43.6^ 

 Fahr., or— 42° C. (Minimum in the night, —47.2" Fahr., 

 or —44'' C.) Clear, as it has been every day. Beautiful, 



