possibility that
Nordenskioeld's Taimur Sound farther south might be open, and that we
might manage to get the Fram through there, in spite of Nordenskioeld
having said distinctly "that it is too shallow to allow of the passage
of vessels of any size."

After having been out in the kayak and boat and shot some seals,
we went on to anchor in a bay that lay rather farther south,
where it seemed as if there would be a little shelter in case of a
storm. We wanted now to have a thorough cleaning out of the boiler,
a very necessary operation. It took us more than one watch to steam
a distance we could have rowed in half an hour or less. We could
hardly get on at all for the dead-water, and we swept the whole sea
along with us. It is a peculiar phenomenon, this dead-water. We had
at present a better opportunity of studying it than we desired. It
occurs where a surface layer of fresh water rests upon the salt water
of the sea, and this fresh water is carried along with the ship,
gliding on the heavier sea beneath as if on a fixed foundation. The
difference between the two strata was in this case so great that,
while we had drinking-water on the surface, the water we got from
the bottom cock of the engine-room was far too salt to be used for
the boiler. Dead-water manifests itself in the form of larger or
smaller ripples or waves stretching across the wake, the one behind
the other, arising sometimes as far forward as almost amidships. We
made loops in our course, turned sometimes right round, tried all
sorts of antics to get clear of it, but to very little purpose. The
moment the engine stopped it seemed as if the ship were sucked back. In
spite of the Fram's weight and the momentum she usually has, we could
in the present instance go at full speed till within a fathom or two
of the edge of the ice, and hardly feel a shock when she touched.

Just as we were approaching we saw a fox jumping backward and forward
on the ice, taking the most wonderful leaps and enjoying life. Sverdrup
sent a ball from the forecastle which put an end to it on the spot.

About midday two bears were seen on land, but they disappeared before
we got in to shoot them.

The number of seals to be seen in every direction was something
extraordinary, and it seemed to me that this would be an uncommonly
good hunting-ground. The flocks I saw this first day on the ice
reminded me of the crested-seal hunting-grounds on the west coast
of Greenland.

This e