2,2,6 FARTHEST NORTH 



to know that we can procure food at any minute we 

 like. 



" Now came the rigging of the kayaks for the voy- 

 age. Of course, the better way would have been to pad- 

 dle singly, but, with the long, big sledges on the deck, 

 this was not easy, and leave them behind I dared not; 

 we miQ:ht have o-ood use for them vet. For the time 

 being, therefore, there was nothing else to be done but 

 to lash the two kayaks together side by side in our usual 

 manner, stiffen them out with snow-shoes under the 

 straps, and place the sledges athwart them, one before 

 and one behind. 



" It was sad to think we could not take our two last 

 dogs with us, l^ut we should probably have no further 

 use for them, and it would not have done to take them 

 with us on the decks of our kayaks. W'e were sorry to 

 pari with them ; we had become very fond of these two 

 survivors. Faithful and enduring, they had followed us 

 the whole journey through ; and, now that better times 

 had come, they must say farewell to life. Destroy them 

 in the same way as the others we could not ; we sacri- 

 ficed a cartridge on each of them. I shot Johansen's, 

 and he shot mine. 



" So then we were ready to set off. It was a real 

 pleasure to let the kayaks dance over the water and 

 hear the little waves plashing against the sides. For 

 two years we had not seen such a surface of water be- 

 fore us. We had not gone far before we found that the 



