Farthest North.

Manawatu Herald, 29 July 1897, Page 3

Farthest North.

XII

ROW THEY GOT 017 TOGETHER. " After oar return, Johansen was once asked how we two had got on daring the winter, and whether wo had managed to fall oat with each other ; for it is said to be a severe test for two men to live so long together in perfeot isolation. " Oh, no," he answered, •' we didn't quarrel ; the only thing was that I have the bad habit of snoring in my sleep, and then Nansen used to kick me in the back." We did our best to sleep away as much as possible of it, (time). We carried this art to a high pitch of perfection, au'd could sometimes put in a? much as twenty hours sleep in the twenty four." TAILORS. In April Dr Nansen writes " We had to begin to make ourselves new clothes out of our blankets; our wind-clothes had to be patched and mended ; oar ' komager ' bad to be soled, and we had to make socks and glove* out of bearskin. Our hut was suddenly transformed into a busy tailor's and shoemaker's workroom, where we sat side by side in the sleeping-bag upon the stone bed, and sewed and sewed and thought about the home-coming. We got thread by unravelling tho cotton canvas of some provision bags." PROVISIONS. " When we dug up the stores which we had buried at the beginning of the winter, and opened the bags, we found that there were some miser- . able remains of a commissariat which bad once, indeed, been good, but was now for the most part mouldy and spoilt by the damp of the previous autumn. There remained a certain quantity of fish flour, and and some damp half-moulded bread, which we carefully boiled in train* oil, partly to dry it and to render it more nutritious by impregnating it with fat. We thought it tasted delightful and preserved it carefully for festal oocassions, and times when all other food failed us. There was nothing for it but to lay in a store of as much cut-up raw flesh and blubber as we could carry with us." SHORT OF FOOD. On the 7th June, ten days prior to their reaching Mr Jackson's quarters, but of which they were unaware, the book records " Oar provisions are getting low ; we have a little meat for one more day, but there is n,o living thing to be seen, not a Beal on the ice, and no open water anywhere. How long is this going on ? If we do not soon reach the open sea again, where there may be game to be had, things will not look very pleasant." A SEAIOUS ACCIDENT. " In the evening (June 12th) we put in to the edge of the ice, so as to stretch our legs a little ; they were stiff with sitting in the kayak all day, and we wanted to get a little view over the water to the West, by ascending a hummock. As we went ashore the question arose as to how we should moor our precious vessel. ' Take one of the braces ' said Johansen ; he was standing on the ice. ' But is it strong enough ?' * Yes,' be answered ; ' I have used it as a halyard on my sledge sail all the time.' "Ob, well, it doesn't require much to hold these light kayaks " said I, a little ashamed of having been so timid, and I moored them with the halyard, which was a ■trap cut from a raw walrus hide. We had been on the ice a little while, moving up and down close to the kayaks. The wind had dropped considerably, and seemed to be more westerly, making it doubtful whether we could make use of it any longer, and we went to a hummock close by to ascertain this better. As we stood there, Johansen suddenly cried : "I say I the kayaks are adrift !" We ran down as hard as we oould. They were already a little way oat, and were drifting quickly off; the painter had given way. " Here, take my watch 1" I said to Johansen, giving it to him ; and as quickly as possible I threw off some clothing so as to be able to swim more easily ; I did not dare to take everything off, (is I might so easily get cramp." (To be continued).