338 FARTHEST NORTH 



it, it was hung from a gallows, too high for the dogs to 

 jump up to the piece of blubber which hangs as bait 

 right in the mouth of the trap. All the clogs spend the 

 evening now sitting on the rail barking at this new man 

 they see out there on the ice in the moonlight. 



" Thursday, December 21st. It is extraordinary, after 

 all, how the time passes. Here we are at the shortest 

 day, though lue have no day. But now we are moving 

 on to light and summer again. We tried to sound to- 

 day ; had out 2100 metres (over 1 100 fathoms) of line 

 without reaching the bottom. We have no more line ; 

 what is to be done 1 Who could have guessed that we 

 should find such deep water } There has been an arch 

 of light in the sky all day, opposite the moon ; so it is a 

 lunar rainbow, but without color, so far as I have been 

 able to see. 



" Friday, December 2 2d. A bear was shot last night. 

 Jacobsen saw it first, during his watch. He shot at it. 

 It made off; and he then went down and told about 

 it in the cabin. Mogstad and Peter came on deck ; 

 Sverdrup was called, too, and came up a little later. 

 They saw the bear on his way towards the ship again ; 

 but he suddenly caught sight of the gallows with the trap 

 on the ice to the west, and went off there. He looked 

 well at the apparatus, then raised himself cautiously on 

 his hind-legs, and laid his right paw on the cross-beam 

 just beside the trap, stared for a little, hesitating, at 

 the delicious morsel, but did not at all like the ugly jaws 



