5i6 FARTHEST NORTH 



Fully equipped, it weighs 30.5 kilos. (60 lbs.). I think it 

 will prove a first-rate contrivance. Sverdrup and I tried 

 it on a pool. It carried us splendidly, and was so stiff that 

 even sitting on the deck we could handle it quite com- 

 fortably. It will easily carry two men with full equip- 

 ment for 100 days. A handier or more practical craft 

 for regions like this I cannot well imagine. 



"Sunday, August 5th. 81° 7' north latitude. 



" ' I can't forget the sparkling fjord 



When the church boat rows in the morning.' 



" Brilliant summer weather. I bathe in the sun and 

 dream I am at home either on the high mountains or 

 — heaven knows why — on the fjords of tlie west coast. 

 The same white fleecy clouds in the clear blue summer 

 sky; heaven arches itself overhead like a perfect dome, 

 there is nothing to bar one's way, and the soul rises 

 up unfettered beneath it. \\1iat matters it that the 

 world below is different — the ice no longer single 

 glittering glaciers, but spread out on every hand } Is 

 it not these same fleecy clouds far away in the blue 

 expanse that the eye looks for at home on a bright 

 summer day ? Sailing on these, fancy steers its course 

 to the land of wistful longing. And it is just at these 

 oflitterins: orjaciers in the distance that we direct our 

 longing gaze. Why should not a summer day be as 

 lovely here.'* Ah, yes! it is lovely, pure as a dream, 

 without desire, without sin ; a poem of clear white 



