no FARTHEST NORTH 



Just as our prospects were at their darkest, and we 

 were preparing to seek a way back out of the ice, which 

 kept getting ever denser, the joyful tidings came that 

 the fog was Hfting, and that clear water was visible 

 ahead to the east on the other side of the ice. After 

 forcing our way ahead for some hours between the 

 heavy floes, we w^ere once more in open water. This 

 first bout with the ice, however, showed us plainly what 

 an excellent ice-boat the Fram was. It was a royal 

 pleasure to work her ahead through difficult ice. She 

 twisted and turned " like a ball on a platter." No 

 channel between the floes so winding and awkward 

 but she could oret throus^h it. But it is hard work 

 for the helmsman. " Hard astarboard ! Hard aport ! 

 Steady! Hard astarboard again!" goes on incessantly 

 without so much as a breathing-space. And he rattles 

 the wheel round, the sweat pours off him, and round 

 it goes again like a spinning-wheel. And the ship 

 swings round and wriggles her way forward among the 

 floes without touching, if there is only just an open- 

 ing wide enough for her to slip through ; and where 

 there is none she drives full tilt at the ice, with 

 her heavy plunge, runs her sloping bows up on it, 

 treads it under her, and bursts the floes asunder. 

 And how strong she is too ! Even when she goes 

 full speed at a floe, not a creak, not a sound, is to be 

 heard in her; if she gives a little shake it is all she 

 does. 



