Farthest north; being the record of a voyage of exploration of the ship "Fram" 1893-96, and of a fifteen months' sleigh journey by DrNansen and LieutJohansen . t walls. Theyroosted in hundreds and hundreds on the shelves andledges above us; at other places the kittiwakes broodedon their nests. It was a refreshing scene of life andactivity. As we stood up there at a height of 500 feet,and could look far out over the sea, the auks flew inswarms backward and forward over our heads, and everynow and then we would knock over one or two asthey passed. Every time a gun was fired the reportechoed thro
Farthest north; being the record of a voyage of exploration of the ship "Fram" 1893-96, and of a fifteen months' sleigh journey by DrNansen and LieutJohansen . t walls. Theyroosted in hundreds and hundreds on the shelves andledges above us; at other places the kittiwakes broodedon their nests. It was a refreshing scene of life andactivity. As we stood up there at a height of 500 feet,and could look far out over the sea, the auks flew inswarms backward and forward over our heads, and everynow and then we would knock over one or two asthey passed. Every time a gun was fired the reportechoed through all the rocky clefts, and thousands ofbirds flew shrieking down from the ledges. It seemedas though a blast of wind had swept a great dust-clouddown from the crest above; but little by little they re-turned to their nests, many of them meanwhile falling toour guns. Jackson had here a capital larder, and he made THE JOURNEY SOUTHWARD 5^5 ample use of it. Almost every day he was up under therock shooting auks, which formed a daily dish at the autumn great stores of them were laid in to lastthrough the winter. At other times Jackson and Blom-. KITTIWAKE ON HER NEST qvist would go up and gather eggs. They dragged aladder up with them, and by its aid Jackson clamberedup the perpendicular cliffs. This egg-hunting among theloose basalt cliffs, where the stones were perpetually slip-ping away from under one, appeared to me such dare-devil work that I was chary in taking part in it. Far beit from me to deny, however, that the eggs made deliciouseating, whether we had them soft-boiled for breakfast or 566 FARTHEST NORTH made into pancakes for dinner. It was remarkable howentirely I bad got out of training for climbing in precipi-tous places. I well remember that the first time I wentup the moraine with Jackson I had to stop and takebreath every hundred paces or so. This was, no doubt,due to our long inactivity; perhaps, too, I had becomesomewhat ana?mic during the winter in
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