98 FARTHEST NORTH 



Maybe they have heard it is a glorious enterprise ; but 

 why? To what end? Are we not defrauding them? 

 But their eyes are riveted on the ship, and perhaps there 

 dawns before their minds a momentary vision of a new 

 and inconceivable world, with aspirations after a some- 

 thing of which they know naught. . . . And here on 

 board are men who are leaving wife and children behind 

 them. How sad has been the separation ! what longing, 

 what yearning, await them in the coming years! And it 

 is not for profit they do it. For honor and glory then ? 

 These may be scant enough. It is the same thirst for 

 achievement, the same craving to get beyond the limits 

 of the known, which inspired this people in the Saga 

 times that is stirring in them again to-day. In spite of 

 all our toil for subsistence, in spite of all our "peasant 

 politics," sheer utilitarianism is perhaps not so dominant 

 among us, after all. 



As time was precious I did not, as originally intended, 

 put in at Trondhjem, but stopped at Beian, where Sver- 

 drup joined us. Here Professor Brogger also came on 

 board, to accompany us as far as Tromso. 



Here, too, our doctor received three monstrous chests 

 with the medicine supply, a gift from Apothecary Bruun, 

 of Trondhjem. 



And so on towards the north, along the lovely coast 

 of Nordland. We stopped at one or two places to take 

 dried fish on board as provision for the dogs. Past 

 Toro-hatten, the Seven Sisters, and Hestemanden ; past 



