6o6 APPENDIX 



and I him." As a matter of fact, it is my habit to dishke talk- 

 ing when I am busy with any work, while the reverse is the case 

 with the doctor. As, according to my custom, I kept silence, 

 the doctor believed that I was in a bad humor, and in the same 

 way I fancied that he was in the sulks, because he abstained 

 from chatting. But the misunderstanding was soon cleared up, 

 and we laughed heartily at it. 



As Dr. Nansen's and Johansen's departure afforded an op- 

 portunity for a more comfortable redistribution of quarters, I 

 moved into Nansen's cabin, after having packed in cases the 

 effects he left behind, and stowed them away in the fore-hold. 

 Jacobsen, the mate, who was formerly quartered with four of 

 the crew in the large cabin on the port side, had my cabin al- 

 lotted to him; and in the starboard cabin, where four men had 

 been quartered, there were now only three. The workroom, 

 too, was restored to its former honor and dignity. The lamp- 

 glasses of the oil-stove there had got broken in the course of the 

 year. Amundsen now replaced these with chimneys of tin, and 

 fitted thin sheets of mica over the peep-holes. The stove having 

 thus been repaired, the workroom became the busiest and most 

 comfortable compartment in the whole vessel. 



After the various operations of shifting and putting in order 

 the things on board and in the depot, our next care was to insure 

 easy and convenient access to the vessel by constructing a proper 

 gangway aft, consisting of two spars with packing-case planks 

 nailed between them and a rope hand-rail attached. 



When all this was done we set to work at the long and mani- 

 fold preparations of every kind for a sledge journey southward, 

 in the event (which, as a matter of fact, none of us considered 

 likely) of our being obliged to abandon the Fram. We con- 

 structed sledges and kayaks, sewed bags for our stores, selected 

 and weighed out provisions and other necessaries, etc., etc. This 

 work kept us busy for a long time. 



In addition to all the other things we had to provide ourselves 

 with more snow-shoes, as we were scantily supplied with them. 

 Snow-shoes we must have, good strong ones, at least one pair to 

 every man. But where were the materials to come from? There 



