al was the pleasantest
in the day, for then at any rate they were warmed inside. After it they
packed themselves in their sleeping bag, when the ice on their clothes
melted and they lay all night as in a cold compress. They dreamed of
sledges and dog teams, and Johansen would call out to the dogs in his
sleep, urging them on. Then they would wake up again in the bitter
morning, rouse up the dogs, lying huddled up together and growling at
the cold, disentangle the trace lines, load the sledges, and off they
would go through the great solitude.

Only too frequently the ice was unfavourable, the sledges stuck fast,
and had to be pushed over ridges and fissures. They struggle on
northwards, however, and have travelled a degree of latitude. It is
tiring work to march and crawl in this way, and sometimes they are so
worn out that they almost go to sleep on their skis while the dogs
gently trot beside them. The dogs too are tired of this toil, and two of
them have to be killed. They are cut up and distributed among their
comrades, some of whom refuse to turn cannibals.

When the ice became still worse and the cold white desert looked like a
heap of stones as far northwards as the eye could see, Nansen decided to
turn back. It was impossible to find their way back to the _Fram_, for
several snowstorms had swept over the ice obliterating their tracks. The
only thing to do was to steer a course for the group of islands called
Franz Josef Land. It was 430 miles off, and the provisions were coming
to an end; but when the spring really set in they would surely find
game, and they had for their two guns a hundred and eighty cartridges
with ball and a hundred and fifty with shot. The dogs had the worst of
it; for them it was a real "dog's life" up there. The stronger were
gradually to eat up the weaker.

So they turned back and made long marches over easy ice. One day they
saw a complete tree trunk sticking up out of the ice. What singular
fortunes it must have experienced since it parted from its root! At the
end of April the spoor of two foxes was seen in the snow. Was land near,
or what were these fellows doing out here on the ice-covered sea? Two
days later a dog named Gulen was sacrificed. He was born on the _Fram_,
and during his short life had never seen anything but snow and ice; now
he was worn out and exhausted, and the travellers were sorry to part
from the faithful soul.

Open water, sunlit billows! How delightful to h