62 FARTHEST NORTH 



— 40° C), but when there is added to this a biting wind, 

 with a velocity of from 9 to 16 feet per second, it must 

 be allowed that it is rather ' cool in the shade.' 



" Sverdrup and I agreed to - da}^ that the Christmas 

 holidays had better stop now and the usual life begin 

 again ; too much idleness is not good for us. It cannot 

 be called a full nor a complicated one, this life of ours ; 

 but it has one advantage, that we are all satisfied with it, 

 such as it is. 



" They are still working in the engine-room, but ex- 

 pect to finish what they are doing to the boiler in a few 

 days, and then all is done there. Then the turning- 

 lathe is to be set up in the hold, and tools for it have 

 to be forged. There is often a job for Smith Lars,, 

 and then the forge flames forward by the forecastle, 

 and sends its red glow on to the rime-covered rigging, 

 and farther up into the starry night, and out over the 

 waste of ice. From far off you can hear the strokes 

 on the anvil ringing through the silent night. When 

 one is wandering alone out there, and the well-known 

 sound reaches ones ear, and one sees the red glow, 

 memory recalls less solitary scenes. While one stands 

 gazing, perhaps a light moves along the deck and 

 slowly up the rigging. It is Johansen on his way up 

 to the crow's-nest to read the temperature. Blessing 

 is at present engaged in counting blood corpuscles again, 

 and estimating amounts of haemoglobin. For this pur- 

 pose he draws blood every month from every mother's 



