220 FARTHEST NORTH 



all night, making splendid way ; when the wind was 

 blowing stiffest we went at the rate of 9 knots. We 

 came upon ice every now and then, but got through it 

 easily. 



Towards morning (September iith) we had high land 

 ahead, and had to change our course to due east, keep- 

 ing to this all day. When I came on deck before noon 

 I saw a fine tract of hill country, with high summits and 

 valleys between. It was the first view of the sort since 

 we had left Vardo, and, after the monotonous low land 

 we had been coasting along for months, it was refresh- 

 ing to see such mountains again. They ended with a 

 precipitous descent to the east, and eastward from that 

 extended a perfectly flat plain. In the course of the 

 day we quite lost sight of land, and strangely enough 

 did not see it again ; nor did we see the Islands of St. 

 Peter and St. Paul, though, according to the maps, our 

 course lay close past them. 



Thursday, September 12th. Henriksen awoke me 

 this morning at 6 with the information that there 

 were several walruses lying on a floe quite close to us. 

 " By jove !" Up I jumped and had my clothes on in a 

 trice. It was a lovely morning — fine, still weather ; the 

 walruses' guffaw sounded over to us along the clear 

 ice surface. They were lying crowded together on a 

 floe a little to landward from us, blue mountains glitter- 

 ing behind them in the sun. At last the harpoons were 

 sharpened, guns and cartridges ready, and Henriksen, 



