196 FARTHEST NORTH 



some seals, we went on to anchor in a bay that lay rather 

 farther south, where it seemed as if there would be a 

 little shelter in case of a storm. We wanted now to 

 have a thorough cleaning out of the boiler, a very neces- 

 sary operation. It took us more than one watch to 

 steam a distance we could have rowed in half an 

 hour or less. We could hardly get on at all for the 

 dead-water, and we swept the whole sea along with us. 

 It is a peculiar phenomenon, this dead-water. We had 

 at present a better opportunity of studying it than we 

 desired. It occurs where a surface layer of fresh water 

 rests upon the salt water of the sea, and this fresh 

 water is carried along with the ship, gliding on the 

 heavier sea beneath as if on a fixed foundation. The 

 difference between the two strata was in this case so 

 great that, while we had drinking-water on the surface, 

 the water we got from the bottom cock of the engine- 

 room was far too salt to be used for the boiler. Dead- 

 water manifests itself in the form of larger or smaller 

 ripples or waves stretching across the wake, the one 

 behind the other, arising sometimes as far forward as 

 almost amidships. We made loops in our course, turned 

 sometimes right round, tried all sorts of antics to get 

 clear of it, but to very little purpose. The moment the 

 engine stopped it seemed as if the ship were sucked 

 back. In spite of the Frams weight and the mo- 

 mentum she usually has, we could in the present in- 

 stance go at full speed till within a fathom or two of 



