LAND AT LAST 321 



sibly take long to reach it, certainly not longer than till 

 next evening. Johansen was even certain that we should 

 do it the same day, but nevertheless thirteen days were 

 to elapse, occupied in the same monotonous drudgery 

 over the drift-ice. 



On July 25th I write: "When we stopped in the 

 fog yesterday evening we had a feeling that we must 

 have come well under land. This morning, when we 

 turned out, the first thing Johansen did when he went 

 to fetcli some water for me to cook with was, of course, 

 to climb up on the nearest hummock and look at the 

 land. There it lay, considerably nearer than before, and 

 he is quite certain that we shall reach it before night." 

 I also discovered a new land to our west (S. 60" W. 

 magnetic) that day ; a regular, shield-like, arched outline, 

 similar to the other land ; and it was low above the 

 horizon, and appeared to be a long way off.* 



We went on our way as fast as we could across lanes 

 and rough ice, but did not get far in the day, and the 

 land did not seem to be much nearer. In reality there 

 was no difference to be seen, although we tried to 

 imagine that it was steadily growing higher. On 

 Saturday, July 27th, I seem to have a suspicion that 

 in point of fact we were drifting away from land, I 

 write : " The wind began to blow from the S.S.W. 

 (magnetic) just as we were getting off yesterday, and 



* It proved later that this must be Crown Prince Rudolf Land. 

 II.-21 



