Farthest North Volume II Part 24

[60] I now thought I could safely conclude that we were on the west coast of Franz Josef Land, and were at this moment a little north of Leigh Smith's most northwesterly point, Cape Lofley, which should lie a little south of 81 north lat.i.tude, while our observation that day made us about 81 19' north lat.i.tude.

[61] Ice which is frozen fast to the bottom, and is therefore often left lying like an icy base along the sh.o.r.e even after the sea is free from ice. On account of the warm water which comes from the land, an open channel is often formed between this ice-base and the sh.o.r.e.

[62] It was a registering thermometer, which was also used as a sling-thermometer.

[63] It often blew very fresh there under the mountain. Another time, one of my snow-shoes, which was stuck into the snowdrift beside the hut, was broken short off by the wind. It was a strong piece of maple.

[64] Christmas-eve and New-year's-eve were the only occasions on which we allowed ourselves to take any of the provisions which we were keeping for our journey southward.

[65] These rumblings in the glacier are due to rifts which are formed in the ma.s.s of ice when the cold causes it to contract. New rifts seemed to be formed only when the temperature sank lower than it had previously been in the course of that winter; at least, it was only then that we heard the rumblings.

[66] It proved afterwards that the distance was about 56 miles.

[67] We had now, as the spring advanced, a good opportunity of seeing how the little auk in great flocks and the black guillemots in smaller numbers, invariably set forth from land at certain times of the day towards the open sea, and then at other times returned in unbroken lines up the ice-bound fjords to their nest-rocks again.

[68] This was a slip of the pen; it ought to be 102 east longitude.

[69] Jackson's "Cape M'Clintock."

[70] Jackson, who saw it in the spring of 1895, called it Mary Elizabeth Island.

[71] Jackson's "Cape Fisher."

[72] This was on the south side of Jackson's "Cape Richthofen," the most northerly point which Jackson had reached earlier the same spring.

[73] It proved afterwards to be "Hooker Island."

[74] It proved to be "Northbrook Island."

[75] The sound between Northbrook Island and Bruce Island on the one side and Peter Head, on Alexandra Land, on the other side.

[76] Cape Barents.

[77] The ice-foot is the part of a floe which often projects into the water under the surface. It is formed through the thawing of the upper part of the ice in the summer-time by the warmer surface layer of the sea.

[78] He had reached Cape Richthofen, about 35 miles to the south of us.

[79] We had not any nautical almanac for 1896, and had hitherto used the almanac for the previous year.

[80] New Lands within the Arctic Circle. By J. Payer, Vol. II., p. 129.

[81] Where they are generally called diabases.

[82] Leigh Smith had already brought back from Spitzbergen a fossil cone, which Carruthers cla.s.sified as a Pinus; but he regarded it as belonging to the upper part of the cretaceous system.

[83] I did not dream that Sverdrup a year after would be in command of this steamer.

[84] Jackson had brought with him several Russian horses, which he had used along with dogs on his sledge expeditions. Only one of these horses was alive at the time of our arrival.

[85] Vide pp. 91-98, Vol. II.

[86] Little "Barnet," who weighed only 38 pounds, and was one of the smallest of the dogs, was a regular fighter, and, as a rule, the aggressor.

[87] On April 18th, when the doctor and I were out looking for a suitable piece of ice for determining the specific gravity of the ice, we observed a remarkable drop of water hanging under a projecting corner of a large block of ice, reared up high by pressure. There it hung, in the shade, quivering in the fresh breeze, although the thermometer registered about -23 of frost. "That must be very salt,"

I said, and tasted it--"Phew!" It was salt in very truth--rank salt, like the strongest brine.

[88] These are well-known localities in Christiania, Engebret's being a restaurant.

[89] A small keelless boat.

[90] A round wicker snow-shoe like a basket-lid.

[91] This claret was made for the occasion, and consisted of the juice of dried red whortleberries and bilberries, with the addition of a little spirits. I was highly complimented on this beverage, and served it again on other occasions.

[92] Twenty-eight days' work of forcing this more or less closely packed ice had brought us a distance of 180 miles.

[93] January

[94] December