remained lying in dead-water or drifted backward, thereby
putting Amundsen into a very bad temper. It was a remarkable fact
that during the whole time the Fram's bow turned towards the south,
generally S. 1/4 W., and shifted but very little during the whole
drift. As I say on May 14th: "She went backward towards her goal in
the north, with her nose ever turned to the south. It is as though she
shrank from increasing her distance from the world; as though she were
longing for southern shores, while some invisible power is drawing
her on towards the unknown. Can it be an ill omen, this backward
advance towards the interior of the Polar Sea? I cannot think it;
even the crab ultimately reaches its goal."

A statement of our latitude and longitude on different days will best
indicate the general course of our drift:

May 1st, 80 deg. 46' N. lat.; May 4th, 80 deg. 50'; May 6th, 80 deg. 49'; May
8th, 80 deg. 55' N. lat., 129 deg. 58' E. long.; May 12th, 80 deg. 52' N. lat.;
May 15th, 129 deg. 20' E. long.; May 21st, 81 deg. 20' N. lat., 125 deg. 45'
E. long.; May 23d, 81 deg. 26' N. lat.; May 27th, 81 deg. 31'; June 2d, 81 deg.
31' N. lat., 121 deg. 47' E. long.; June 13th, 81 deg. 46'; June 18th, 81 deg.
52'. Up to this we had made fairly satisfactory progress towards
the north, but now came the reaction: June 24th, 81 deg. 42'; July 1st,
81 deg. 33'; July 10th, 81 deg. 20'; July 14th, 81 deg. 32'; July 18th, 81 deg. 26';
July 31st, 81 deg. 2' N. lat., 126 deg. 5' 5'' E. long.; August 8th, 81 deg. 8';
August 14th, 81 deg. 5' N. lat., 127 deg. 38' E. long.; August 26th, 81 deg. 1';
September 5th, 81 deg. 14' N. lat., 123 deg. 36' E. long.

After this we began once more to drift northward, but not very fast.

As before, we were constantly on the look-out for land, and were
inclined, first from one thing, then from another, to think we saw
signs of its proximity; but they always turned out to be imaginary,
and the great depth of the sea, moreover, showed that, at all events,
land could not be near.

Later on--August 7th--when I had found over 2085 fathoms (3850 metres)
depth, I say in my diary: "I do not think we shall talk any more about
the shallow Polar Sea, where land may be expected anywhere. We may
very possibly drift out into the Atlantic Ocean without having seen
a single mountain-top. An eventful series of years to look forward to!"

The plan already alluded to of travelling over the ice with
dogs and sledges occu