700 APPENDIX 



a dcirk expanse of water to the S.S.E., and at 3.45 we steered 

 through the last ice-floes out into open water." 



WE WERE FREE ! Behind us lay three years of work and 

 hardships, with their burden of sad thought during the long 

 nights, before us life and reunion with all those who were dear 

 to us. Just a few more days! A chaos of contending feelings 

 came over each and every one. For some time it seemed as if 

 we could hardly realize what we saw, as if the deep blue, lapping 

 water at the bow were an illusion, a dream. We were still a 

 good way above the eightieth degree of latitude, and it is only 

 in very favorable summers that ice-free water stretches so far 

 north. Were we, perhaps, in a large, open pool? Had we still 

 a great belt of ice to clear? 



No, it was real ! The free, unbounded sea was around us on 

 every side ; and we felt, with a sense of rapture, how the Frain 

 gently pitched with the first feeble swells. 



We paid the final honors to our vanquished antagonist by 

 firing a thundering salute as a farewell. One more gaze at the 

 last faint outlines of hummocks and floes, and the mist concealed 

 them from our view. 



We now shaped our course by the compass S.S.E., as the fog 

 was still so dense that no observation could be taken. Our plan 

 was at first to steer towards Red Bay, get our landfall, and 

 thence to follow the west coast of Spitzbergen southward till we 

 found a suitable anchoring-place, where we could take in water, 

 shift the coal from the hold into the bunkers, and, in fact, make 

 the Fraui quite ship-shape for our homeward trip. 



At 7 A.^r., when the fog lifted slightly, we sighted a sail on to 

 port, and shaped our course for her, in order to speak to her and 

 try to get some news of Dr. Nansen and Johansen. In an hour 

 or so we were quite near her. She w^as lying to, and did not 

 seem to have sighted us until we were close on her. The mate 

 then ran down to announce that a monster ship was bearing 

 down upon them in the fog. Soon the deck was crowded with 



* Twenty-eight days' work of forcing this more or less closely packed 

 ice had brought us a distance of 180 miles. 



