nce then it
has slackened again a little.

"Wednesday, October 18th. When the meteorologist, Johansen, was on deck
this morning reading the thermometers, he noticed that the dogs, which
are now tied up on board, were barking loudly down at something on the
ice. He bent over the rail astern, near the rudder, and saw the back of
a bear below him, close in at the ship's side. Off he went for a gun,
and the animal fell with a couple of shots. We saw afterwards by its
tracks that it had inspected all the heaps of sweepings round the ship.

"A little later in the morning I went for a stroll on the ice. Hansen
and Johansen were busy with some magnetic observations to the south
of the ship. It was beautiful sunshiny weather. I was standing beside
an open pool a little way ahead, examining the formation and growth
of the new ice, when I heard a gun go off on board. I turned, and
just caught a glimpse of a bear making off towards the hummocks. It
was Henriksen who had seen it from the deck coming marching towards
the ship. When it was a few paces off it saw Hansen and Johansen,
and made straight for them. By this time Henriksen had got his gun,
but it missed fire several times. He has an unfortunate liking for
smearing the lock so well with vaseline that the spring works as if
it lay in soft soap. At last it went off, and the ball went through
the bear's back and breast in a slanting direction. The animal stood
up on its hind-legs, fought the air with its fore-paws, then flung
itself forward and sprang off, to fall after about 30 steps; the ball
had grazed the heart. It was not till the shot went off that Hansen
saw the bear, and then he rushed up and put two revolver-balls into
its head. It was a large bear, the largest we had got yet.

"About midday I was in the crow's-nest. In spite of the clear weather I
could not discover land on any side. The opening far to the north has
quite disappeared; but during the night a large new one has formed
quite close to us. It stretches both north and south, and has now
a covering of ice. The pressure is chiefly confined to the edges of
this opening, and can be traced in walls of packed ice as far as the
horizon in both directions. To the east the ice is quite unbroken
and flat. We have lain just in the worst pressure.

"Thursday, October 19th. The ice again slackened a little last
night. In the morning I attempted a drive with six of the dogs. When I
had managed to harness them to the Sa