BY SLEDGE AND KAYAK 295 



are to-day! how the folk at home are starting forth in 

 crowds to the beautiful Norwegian woods and valleys! . . . 

 And here are we still in the drift-ice; cooking and frying 

 with blubber, eating it and seal's flesh until the train-oil 

 drips off us, and, above all, not knowing when there will 

 be an end to it all. Perhaps we still have a winter before 

 us. I could hardly have conceived that we should be 

 here now! 



" It is a pleasing change, however, after having re- 

 duced our rations and fuel to a minimum to be able to 

 launch out into excesses, and eat as much and as often 

 as we like. It is a state of things hardly to be realized 

 at present. The food is agreeable to the taste, and we 

 like it better and better. J\ly owai opinion is that blub- 

 ber is excellent both raw and fried, and it can well take 

 the place of butter. The meat, in our eyes, is as good 

 as meat can be. We had it yesterday for breakfast, in 

 the shape of meat and soup served wath raw blubber. For 

 dinner I fried a highly successful steak, not to be sur- 

 passed by the ' Grand ' [Hotel], though a good ' seidel ' of 

 bock-beer would have been a welcome addition. For sup- 

 per I made blood-pancakes fried in blubber instead of 

 butter, and they were a success, inasmuch as Johansen 

 pronounced them ' first-class,' to say nothing of my own 

 sentiments. This frying, however, inside the tent over a 

 train-oil lamp, is a doubtful pleasure. If the lamp itself 

 does not smoke the blubber does, causing the unfortunate 

 cook the most excruciating pain in the eyes ; he can 



