238 FARTHEST NORTH 



away for the winter; slide-valves, pistons, shafts, were 

 examined and thoroughly cleaned. All this was done 

 with the very greatest care. Amundsen looked after 

 that engine as if it had been his own child ; late and 

 early he was down tending it lovingly ; and we used to 

 tease him about it, to see the defiant look come into his 

 eyes and hear him say : " It's all very well for you to 

 talk, but there's not such another engine in the world, 

 and it would be a sin and a shame not to take good care 

 of it." Assuredly he left nothing undone. I don't sup- 

 pose a day passed, winter or summer, all these three 

 years, that he did not go down and caress it, and do 

 something or other for it. 



We cleared up in the hold to make room for a joiner's 

 workshop down there; our mechanical workshop we had 

 in the engine-room. The smithy was at first on deck, 

 and afterwards on the ice ; tinsmith's work was done 

 chiefly in the chart-room; shoemaker's and sailmaker's, 

 and various odd sorts of work, in the saloon. And all 

 these occupations were carried on with interest and 

 activity during the rest of the expedition. There was 

 nothino- from the most delicate instruments down to 

 wooden shoes and axe-handles, that could not be made 

 on board the Fram. When we were found to be short 

 of sounding-line, a grand rope-walk was constructed on 

 the ice. It proved to be a very profitable undertaking, 

 and was well patronized. 



Presently we began putting up the windmill which 



