6iO APPENDIX 



tinned to be a good deal of disturbance in the ice. Twenty 

 yards from the vessel a new lane was formed running parallel to 

 the old one between us from the depot ; and in addition to this 

 a number of larger or smaller cracks had opened in all directions. 

 A little later on, during the time from April i ith to May 9th, there 

 was on the whole considerable disturbance in the ice, with several 

 Violent pressures in the lanes around the vessel. On the first- 

 mentioned day, in the evening, Scott-Hansen and I took a snow- 

 shoe trip tovv^ards the northeast, along the new channel between 

 the vessel and the depot. On our way back pressure set in in 

 the chamiel, and we had an opportunity of witnessing a "screw- 

 ing " such as I had never seen equalled. First there was quite a 

 narrow channel, running parallel to the principal channel, which 

 was covered over with young ice about 2 feet thick. There- 

 upon a larger channel opened just beyond the first and running 

 alongside it. During the pressure which then followed, the 

 edges crashed against each other with such violence as to force 

 the ice down, so that we frequently saw it from 3 to 4 fathoms 

 deep under water. 



Newly frozen sea-ice is marvellously elastic, and will bend to 

 an astonishing degree without breaking. In another place we 

 saw how the new ice had bulged up in large wave-like emi- 

 nences, without breaking. 



On May 5th the wide lane aft was jammed up by ice-pressure, 

 and in its stead a rift was formed in the ice on the port side 

 about 100 yards from us, and approximately parallel to the 

 ship. Thus we now lay in an altered position, inasmuch as the 

 Fram was no longer connected with and dependent on one 

 solid and continuous ice-field, but separated from it by more or 

 less open channels and attached to a large floe which was daily 

 decreasing in size as new cracks were formed. 



The principal channel aft of the vessel continued to open out 

 during the latter part of April, and on the 29th had become 

 very wide. It extended north as far as the eye could reach, 

 and was conspicuous, moreover, by reason of the dark reflec- 

 tion which seemed to hover above it in the sky. It probably 

 attained its maximum width on May ist, when Scott-Hansen 



