SECOND AUTUMN IN THE ICE 545 



difficulty that will not be overcome when our choice lies 

 between death — and onward and home ! 



"Thursday, October 4th. The ice is rather impassable 

 in places, but there are particular lanes or tracts ; taking 

 it altogether, it is in good condition for sledging and 

 snow-shoeing, though the surface is rather soft, so that 

 the dogs sink in a little. This is probably chiefly owing 

 to there having been no strong winds of late, so that the 

 snow has not been well packed together. 



" Life goes on in the regular routine ; there is always 

 some little piece of work turning up to be done. Yester- 

 day the breaking in of the young dogs began,* It was 

 just the three — 'Barbara,' ' Freia,' and ' Susine.' ' Gula- 

 brand ' is such a miserable, thin wretch that he is escap- 

 ing for the present. They were unmanageable at first, 

 and rushed about in all directions ; but in a little while 

 they drew like old dogs, and were altogether better than 

 we expected. ' Kvik,' of course, set them a noble ex- 

 ample. It fell to Mogstad's lot to begin the training, as 

 it was his week for looking after the dogs. This duty is 

 taken in turns now, each man has his week of attending 

 to them both morninQ[ and afternoon. 



" It seems to me that a very satisfactory state of feeling 

 prevails on board at present, when we are just entering 

 on our second Arctic night, which we hope is to be a 

 longer, and probably also a colder, one than any people 



* These were the puppies born on December 13, 1893; only four of 

 them were now alive. 

 35 



