LAND AT LAST 443 



think so. I only wish I could come upon that den, and 

 find the thermometer again, and the ball of twine, and the 

 harpoon-line, and all the other precious things he has 

 taken, the brute ! 



" Thursday, December 5th. It seems as if it would 

 never end. But patience a little longer, and spring will 

 come, the fairest spring that earth can give us. There 

 is furious weather outside, and snow, and it is pleasant 

 to lie here in our warm hut, eating steak, and listening 

 to the wind raging over us. 



"Tuesday, December loth. It has been a bad wind. 

 Johansen discovered to-day that his kayak had disap- 

 peared. After some search he found it again several 

 hundred feet off, up the beach ; it was a good deal 

 knocked about, too. The wind must first have lifted it 

 right over my kayak, and then over one big stone after 

 another. It begins to be too much of a good thing when 

 even the kayaks take to flying about in the air. The 

 atmosphere is dark out over the sea, so the wind has 

 probably broken up the ice, and driven it out, and there 

 is open water once more.* 



" Last night it all at once grew wonderfully calm, and 

 the air was surprisingly mild. It was delightful to be 

 out, and it is long since we have had such a long walk 

 on our beat. It does one good to stretch one's legs now 



* It often blew very fresh there under the mountain. Another time, 

 one of my snow-shoes, which was stuck into the snowdrift beside the hut, 

 was broken short off by the wind. It was a strong piece of maple. 



