BY SLEDGE AND KAYAK 299 



We had good reason, too, to be in spirits, for our obser- 

 vation for the day made us in 82" 4,3' north latitude and 

 57° 48' east longitude. In spite of westerly and, in a 

 measure, southwesterly winds, we had come nearly 14' 

 south in three days and next to nothing east. A highly 

 surprising and satisfactory discovery. Outside, the north 

 wind was still blowing, and consequently we were drift- 

 intr south towards more clement res^ions. 



" Wednesday, June 26th. June 24th was naturally 

 celebrated with great festivities. In the first place, it was 

 that day two years since we started from home ; second- 

 ly it was a hundred days since we left the Fram (not 

 really, it was two days more) ; and, thirdly, it was Mid- 

 summer day. It was, of course, a holiday, and we 

 passed it in dreaming of good times to come, in study- 

 ing our charts, our future prospects, and in reading any- 

 thing readable that was to be found — /. e., the almanac 

 and navigation-tables. Johansen took a walk along the 

 lanes, and also managed to miss a ringed seal, or ' snad,' 

 as we call it in Norwegian, in a pool here east of us. 

 Then came supper — rather late in the night — consisting 

 of blood-pancakes with sugar, and unsurpassed in flavor. 

 The frying over the oil-lamp took a long time, and in 

 order to have them hot we had to eat each one as it was 

 fried, a mode of procedure which promoted a healthy 

 appetite between each pancake. Thereafter we stewed 

 some of our red whortleberries, and they tasted no less 

 good, although they had been soaked in salt-water in 



