114 FAR THE ST NOR TH 



Samoyedes came flocking on board, pleasant -featured 

 people of the broad Asiatic type. Of course it was only 

 the men who came. 



The first question I asked Trontheim was about the 

 ice. He replied that Yugor Strait had been open a 

 long while, and that he had been expecting our arrival 

 every day since then with ever-increasing anxiet}'. The 

 natives and the Russians had begun to jeer at him as 

 time went on, and no Fram was to be seen ; but now he 

 had his revenge and was all sunshine. He thought the 

 state of the ice in the Kara Sea would be favorable; 

 some Samoyedes had said so, who had been seal-hunting 

 near the eastern entrance of the Strait a day or two pre- 

 viously. This was not very much to build upon, certainly, 

 but still sufihcient to make us regret that we had not got 

 there before. Then we spoke of the Urania, of which 

 no one, of course, had seen anything. No ship had put 

 in there for some time, except the sealing sloop we had 

 passed in the morning. 



Next we inquired about the dogs, and learned that 

 everything was all right with them. To make sure, 

 Trontheim had purchased forty dogs, though I had only 

 asked for thirty. Five of these, from various mishaps, 

 had died during their journey — one had been bitten to 

 death, two had got hung fast and had been strangled 

 while passing through a forest, etc., etc. One, more- 

 over, had been taken ill a few da}'s before, and was 

 still on the sick list; but the remaining thirty-four were 



