178 FARTHEST NORTH 



nessecl him. I had meant to whip the dog, but his eyes 

 disarmed me. 



" We found good passable ice, if not always quite flat, 

 and made satisfactory progress. Some ridges, however, 

 forced us west of our course. Later on in the morning I 

 discovered that I had left my compass behind at some 

 place or other where I had had it out to take our bearings. 

 It could not be dispensed with, so I had to return and look 

 for it. I found it, too, but it was a hard pull-back, and 

 on the way I was inconvenienced for the first time by 

 the heat ; the sun scorched quite unpleasantly. When I 

 at last got back to the sledges I felt rather slack; Johan- 

 sen was sitting on the kayak fast asleep, basking in the 

 sun. Then on again, but the light and warmth made us 

 drowsy and slack, and, try as we would, we seemed to lag; 

 so at ten in the forenoon we decided to camp, and I was not 

 a little surprised, when I took the meteorological observa- 

 tion, to find that the swing-thermometer showed —15.2'' 

 Fahr. ( — 26.2^ C). The tent was accordingly pitched in 

 the broiling sun, and nice and warm it soon was inside. 

 We had a comfortable Easter dinner, which did service 

 for botli Easter-day and Easter- Monday. I reckon the dis- 

 tances we covered on Easter-eve and yesterday at about 

 15 miles, and we should thus be altogether 60 miles on 

 our way home. 



" Wednesday, April 17th. --18.4' Fahr. (-28" C). 

 Yesterday, without doubt, we did our longest day's 

 march. We began at half-past seven in the morning. 



