chance, was the word "Vorwaerts." Trontheim
had been told that was the name of our ship, so he was not a little
disappointed when he came on board to find it was Fram instead. I
consoled him, however, by telling him they both meant the same thing,
and that his welcome was just as well meant, whether written in German
or Norwegian. Trontheim told me afterwards that he was by descent a
Norwegian, his father having been a ship's captain from Trondhjem,
and his mother an Esthonian, settled at Riga. His father had been
much at sea, and had died early, so the son had not learnt Norwegian.

Naturally our first and foremost object was to learn all we could
about the ice in the Arctic Sea. We had determined to push on as
soon as possible; but we must have the boiler put in order first,
while sundry pipes and valves in the engine wanted seeing to. As it
would take several days to do this, Sverdrup, Peter Henriksen, and
I set out next morning in our little petroleum launch to the eastern
opening of the Yugor Strait, to see with our own eyes what might be
the condition of the ice to the eastward. It was 28 miles thither. A
quantity of ice was drifting through the strait from the east, and, as
there was a northerly breeze, we at once turned our course northward to
get under the lee of the north shore, where the water was more open. I
had the rather thankless task of acting as helmsman and engineer at
one and the same time. The boat went on like a little hero and made
about six knots. Everything looked bright. But, alas! good fortune
seldom lasts long, especially when one has to do with petroleum
launches. A defect in the circulation-pump soon stopped the engine,
and we could only go for short distances at a time, till we reached
the north shore, where, after two hours' hard work, I got the engines
so far in order as to be able to continue our journey to the northeast
through the sound between the drifting floes. We got on pretty well,
except for an interruption every now and then when the engine took
it into its head to come to a standstill. It caused a good deal of
merriment when the stalwart Peter turned the crank to set her off
again and the engine gave a start so as nearly to pull his arms out
of joint and upset him head over heels in the boat. Every now and
then a flock of long-tailed duck (Harelda glacialis) or other birds
came whizzing by us, one or two of them invariably falling to our guns.

We had kept along the Vaigats s