ch. xxxiv] Amundsen and the N-PV. Passage 315 
autumn passed and they prepared for a second winter 
(1904-5). Constant work was carried on at the obser- 
vatories. The lowest temperature recorded this winter 
was — 50 0 Fahr., and was thus much milder than the 
previous one, when — 8o° had been registered, while at 
the end of March the thermometer was + 17 0 Fahr., 
instead of — 40 0 . When the weather was sufficiently 
established Hansen and Ristvedt started by sledge with 
75 days' provisions to make a rough survey, if possible, 
of part of the east side of Victoria Land. They took two 
sledges and 12 dogs with their food for 70 days, and 
started on April 2nd. On May 26th they reached their 
furthest point north on the western shore of M'Clintock 
Channel, and safely returned June 25th, having been 
successful in their object. 
On August 13th, 1905, the Gjoa once more got under 
way on her westward journey. The observations, mag- 
netic and other, had been kept continuously for 19 months, 
and the large number of Nechilli Eskimos who had been 
in their neighbourhood, or had come long distances to see 
them, had also given them abundant opportunity for 
ethnological notes on these people. Fortune still favoured 
the expedition, the sea proved sufficiently clear of ice, 
and though they had an anxious time navigating through 
the shoals and islands which lay between Nordenskiold I. 
and the Royal Geographical Society's group, they had 
cleared Dease Strait on the 19th of August, and Union 
Strait four days later. Off Baring Land on August 26th 
they met the first whaler from the Bering Strait side, and 
had, as they thought, practically accomplished their task. 
They were still a long way from having done so, how- 
ever, for a few days later they encountered heavy pack at 
King Point, off the mouth of the Mackenzie River, and 
here they were reluctantly compelled to pass a third 
winter. There were many Eskimos here, and at Herschel 
I., 35 miles away, five whalers were wintering. While at 
King Point the magnetic observer, Wijk, died of pneu- 
monia. Early in August, 1906, the Gjoa resumed her 
voyage, passed through Bering Strait without further in- 
cident, and arrived at Nome August 31st, thus completing 
a voyage of extraordinary pluck and endurance, and it 
must be added, of scarcely less extraordinary good fortune. 
