but to the west there was an open waterway as far as one
could see from the masthead. I was in some doubt as to what should
be done. There was an open channel for a short way up past the north
point of the nearest island, but farther to the east the ice seemed
to be close. It might be possible to force our way through there,
but it was just as likely that we should be frozen in; so I thought
it most judicious to go back and make another attempt between these
islands and that mainland which I had some difficulty in believing
that Sverdrup had seen in the morning.

"Thursday, August 20th. Still foggy weather. New islands were observed
on the way back. Sverdrup's high land did not come to much. It turned
out to be an island, and that a low one. It is wonderful the way
things loom up in the fog. This reminded me of the story of the pilot
at home in the Droebak Channel. He suddenly saw land right in front,
and gave the order, 'Full speed astern!' Then they approached carefully
and found that it was half a baling-can floating in the water."

After passing a great number of new islands we got into open water
off Taimur Island, and steamed in still weather through the sound to
the northeast. At 5 in the afternoon I saw from the crow's-nest thick
ice ahead, which blocked farther progress. It stretched from Taimur
Island right across to the islands south of it. On the ice bearded
seals (Phoca barbata) were to be seen in all directions, and we saw
one walrus. We approached the ice to make fast to it, but the Fram had
got into dead-water, and made hardly any way, in spite of the engine
going full pressure. It was such slow work that I thought I would row
ahead to shoot seal. In the meantime the Fram advanced slowly to the
edge of the ice with her machinery still going at full speed.

For the moment we had simply to give up all thoughts of getting
on. It was most likely, indeed, that only a few miles of solid ice
lay between us and the probably open Taimur Sea; but to break through
this ice was an impossibility. It was too thick, and there were no
openings in it. Nordenskioeld had steamed through here earlier in
the year (August 18, 1878) without the slightest hinderance, [31]
and here, perhaps, our hopes, for this year at any rate, were to be
wrecked. It was not possible that the ice should melt before winter
set in in earnest. The only thing to save us would be a proper storm
from the southwest. Our other slight hope lay in the