The only noticeable
leakage during that time was in the engine-room, but it was nothing
of any consequence: just a few buckets of ice that had to be hewn
away every month from the bottom of the ship and hoisted up.

To these varied employments was presently added, as the most important
of all, the taking of scientific observations, which gave many of us
constant occupation. Those that involved the greatest labor were,
of course, the meteorological observations, which were taken every
four hours day and night; indeed, for a considerable part of the time,
every two hours. They kept one man, sometimes two, at work all day. It
was Hansen who had the principal charge of this department, and his
regular assistant until March, 1895, was Johansen, whose place was then
taken by Nordahl. The night observations were taken by whoever was
on watch. About every second day, when the weather was clear, Hansen
and his assistant took the astronomical observation which ascertained
our position. This was certainly the work which was followed with
most interest by all the members of the expedition; and it was not
uncommon to see Hansen's cabin, while he was making his calculations,
besieged with idle spectators, waiting to hear the result--whether
we had drifted north or south since the last observation, and how
far. The state of feeling on board very much depended on these results.

Hansen had also at stated periods to take observations to determine
the magnetic constant in this unknown region. These were carried on
at first in a tent, specially constructed for the purpose, which was
soon erected on the ice; but later we built him a large snow hut,
as being both more suitable and more comfortable.

For the ship's doctor there was less occupation. He looked long and
vainly for patients, and at last had to give it up and in despair take
to doctoring the dogs. Once a month he too had to make his scientific
observations, which consisted in the weighing of each man, and the
counting of blood corpuscles, and estimating the amount of blood
pigment, in order to ascertain the number of red-blood corpuscles
and the quantity of red coloring matter (haemoglobin) in the blood
of each. This was also work that was watched with anxious interest,
as every man thought he could tell from the result obtained how long
it would be before scurvy overtook him.

Among our scientific pursuits may also be mentioned the determining
of the temperature of the wate