442 FARTHEST NORTH 



to spend years of his brief existence in drifting through 

 frozen seas? Is, then, tlie whole thing but the meteor 

 of a moment? Will the whole history of the world evap- 

 orate like a dark, gold-edged cloud in the glow of even- 

 ing — achieving nothing, leaving no trace, passing like a 

 caprice ? 



" Evening. That fox is playing us a great many 

 tricks; whatever he can move he goes off with. He has 

 once gnawed off the band with which the door-skin is 

 fastened, and every now and then we hear him at it 

 asfain, and have to o-o out and knock on the roof of the 

 passage. To-day he went off with one of our sails, in 

 which our salt-water ice was lying. We were not a little 

 alarmed when we went to fetch ice and found sail and 

 all gone. We had no doubt as to who had been there, 

 but we could not under any circumstances afford to lose 

 our precious sail, on which we depended for our voyage 

 to Spitzbergen in the spring, and we tramped about in 

 the dark, up the beach, over the level, and down towards 

 the sea. We looked everywhere, but nothing was to be 

 seen of it. At last we had almost given it up when 

 Johansen, in going on to the ice to get more salt-water 

 ice, found it at the edge of the shore. Our joy was great; 

 but it was wonderful that the fox had been able to drao: 

 that great sail, full of ice too, so far. Down there, how- 

 ever, it had come unfolded, and then he could do nothing 

 with it. L)ut w^hat does he want with things like this? 

 Is it to lie upon in his winter den? One would almost 



