THE SPRING AND SUMMER OF iSg4 453 



went down in 77° north latitude, while the nearest land to 

 us is many times more than double the distance it was in 

 their case, to say nothing of the nearest inhabited land. 

 We are now more than 70 miles from Cape Chelyuskin, 

 while from there to any inhabited region we are a long 

 way farther. But the Frani will not be crushed, and no- 

 body believes in the possibility of such an event. We 

 are like the kavak-rower, who knows well enouoh that 

 one faulty stroke of his paddle is enough to capsize him 

 and send him into eternity ; but none the less he goes on 

 his way serenely, for he knows that he will not make a 

 faulty stroke. This is absolutely the most comfortable 

 way of undertaking a polar expedition ; what possible 

 journey, indeed, could be more comfortable 1 Not even 

 a railway journey, for then you have the bother of chang- 

 ing carriages. Still a change now and then would be no 

 bad thing." 



Later on — in July — the surface was even worse. The 

 floes were everywhere covered with slush, with water 

 underneath, and on the pressure-ridges and between the 

 hummocks where the snow-drifts were deep one would 

 often sink in up to the middle, not even the snow-shoes 

 bearing one up in this soft snow. Later on in July 

 matters improved, the snow having gradually melted 

 away, so that there was a firmer surface of ice to go on. 



But large pools of water now formed on the ice-floes. 

 Already on the Sth and 9th of June such a pool had 

 begun to appear round the ship, so that she lay in a little 



