frost (-27 deg. C.) during the night, which is a good deal for October,
surely. It will be a cold winter if it goes on at the same rate. But
what do we care whether there are 90 deg. of frost or 120 deg.? A good
snow-shoeing excursion to-day. They are all becoming most expert now;
but darkness will be on us presently, and then there will be no more
of it. It is a pity; this exercise is so good for us--we must think
of something to take its place.

"I have a feeling now as if this were to be my last winter on
board. Will it really come to my going off north in spring? The
experiment in drawing a loaded hand-sledge over this ice was certainly
anything but promising; and if the dogs should not hold out, or should
be of less use than we expect; and if we should come to worse ice
instead of better--well, we should only have ourselves to trust to. But
if we can just get so far on with the Fram that the distance left to
be covered is at all a reasonable one, I believe that it is my duty
to make the venture, and I cannot imagine any difficulty that will not
be overcome when our choice lies between death--and onward and home!

"Thursday, October 4th. The ice is rather impassable in places,
but there are particular lanes or tracts; taking it altogether,
it is in good condition for sledging and snow-shoeing, though the
surface is rather soft, so that the dogs sink in a little. This is
probably chiefly owing to there having been no strong winds of late,
so that the snow has not been well packed together.

"Life goes on in the regular routine; there is always some little
piece of work turning up to be done. Yesterday the breaking in of
the young dogs began. [67] It was just the three--'Barbara,' 'Freia,'
and 'Susine.' 'Gulabrand' is such a miserable, thin wretch that he is
escaping for the present. They were unmanageable at first, and rushed
about in all directions; but in a little while they drew like old dogs,
and were altogether better than we expected. 'Kvik,' of course, set
them a noble example. It fell to Mogstad's lot to begin the training,
as it was his week for looking after the dogs. This duty is taken in
turns now, each man has his week of attending to them both morning
and afternoon.

"It seems to me that a very satisfactory state of feeling prevails
on board at present, when we are just entering on our second Arctic
night, which we hope is to be a longer, and probably also a colder,
one than any people before us hav