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 . nly a small open rift or pool every here and there; andthe sky is whitish-blue everywhere on the horizon. It isfrom the east we have just come, but there we could seevery little; and for want of anything better to do weshall make a short excursion in that direction, on thepossibility of finding openings in the ice. If there wereonly time, what I should like would be to go east as faras Sannikoff Island, or, better still, all the way to
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 . nly a small open rift or pool every here and there; andthe sky is whitish-blue everywhere on the horizon. It isfrom the east we have just come, but there we could seevery little; and for want of anything better to do weshall make a short excursion in that direction, on thepossibility of finding openings in the ice. If there wereonly time, what I should like would be to go east as faras Sannikoff Island, or, better still, all the way to BennetLand, to see what condition things are in there; but itis too late now. The sea will soon be freezing, and weshould run a great risk of being frozen in at a dis-advantageous point. Earlier Arctic explorers have considered it a necessityto keep near some coast. But this was exactly what Iwanted to avoid. It was the drift of the ice that Iwished to get into, and what I most feared was beingblocked by land. It seemed as if we might do muchworse than give ourselves up to the ice where we were—especially as our excursion to the east had proved that o. VOYAGE THROUGH THE KARA SEA 233 following the ice-edge in that direction would soon forceus south again. So in the meantime we made fast to agreat ice-block, and prepared to clean the boiler and shiftcoals. We are lying in open water, with only a fewlarge floes here and there; but I have a presentimentthat this is our winter harbor. Great bug war to-day. We play the big steam hoseon mattresses, sofa-cushions—everything that we thinkcan possibly harbor the enemies. All clothes are putinto a barrel, which is hermetically closed, except wherethe hose is introduced. Then full steam is set on. Itwhizzes and whistles inside, and a little forces its waythrough the joints, and we think that the animals mustbe having a fine hot time of it. Hut suddenly the barrelcracks, the steam rushes out, and the lid bursts off witha violent explos
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