LAND AT LAST 319 



dark point. Then, too, it seemed to change form, which, 

 I suppose, must be attributed to the mist which always lay 

 over it; but it always came back again at the same place 

 with its remarkable regular curves. I now remember 

 that dark crag we saw east of us at the camp, and which 

 I took to be an iceberg. It must certainly have been a 

 little islet* of some kind. 



" The ice was worse and more broken than ever yes- 

 terday ; it was, indeed, a labor to force one's way over 

 pressure-ridges like veritable mountains, with valleys and 

 clefts in between ; but on we went in good spirits, and 

 made some progress. At lanes where a crossing was 

 difificult to find we did not hesitate to launch kayaks and 

 sledges, and were soon over in this manner. Sometimes 

 after a very bad bit we would come across some flat ice 

 for a short distance, and over this we would go like wild- 

 fire, splashing through ponds and puddles. While I was 

 on ahead at one time yesterday morning, Johansen went 

 up on to a hummock to look at the ice, and remarked a 

 curious black stripe over the horizon ; but he supposed it 

 to be only a cloud, he said, and I thought no more about 

 the matter. When, some while later, I also ascended a 

 hummock to look at the ice, I became aware of the same 

 black stripe ; it ran obliquely from the horizon up into 

 what I supposed to be a white bank of clouds. The 

 longer I looked at this bank and stripe the more unusual 



*This supposition is extremely doubtful. 



