378 FARTHEST NORTH 



west along the opening, no walrus was to be found. 

 Goodness knows where it had gone, as there are hard- 

 ly any openings in the ice for a long distance round. 

 Sverdrup and I vainly fret over not having known at 

 once what kind of animal it was, for if we had only 

 guessed we should have him now. But who expects 

 to meet a walrus on close ice in the middle of a wild 

 sea of a thousand fathoms deptli, and that in the heart 

 of winter? None of us ever heard of such a thing 

 before ; it is a perfect mystery. As I thought we 

 might have come upon shoals or into the neighborhood 

 of land, I had soundings taken in the afternoon with 

 130 fathoms (240 metres) of line, but no bottom was 

 found. 



" By yesterday's observations we are in 79"" 41' north 

 latitude and 135° 29' east longitude. That is good progress 

 north, and it does not much matter that we have been taken 

 a little west. The clouds are driving this evening before 

 a strong south wind, so we shall likely be going before 

 it soon too; in the meantime there is a breeze from the 

 south so slight that you hardly feel it. 



" The opening on our stern lies almost east and west. 

 We could see no end to it westward when we went after 

 the walrus ; and Mogstad and Peter had gone three miles 

 east, and it was as broad as ever there. 



" Wednesday, January 24th. At supper this evening 

 Peter told some of his remarkable Spitzbergen stories — 

 about his comrade Andreas Bek. ' Well, you see, it was 



