Farthest North, Vol. I: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896Nansen, Fridtjof
History
Farthest North, Vol. I: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896
Nansen, Fridtjof
"Fram" Expedition (1893-1896); Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration; Nansen, Fridtjof, 1861-1930 -- Travel -- Arctic regions
"Friday, October 19th. A fresh breeze from E.S.E. Drifting northward
at a good pace. Soon we shall probably have passed the long-looked-for
82°, and that will not be far from 82° 27', when the Fram will be
the vessel that will have penetrated farthest to the north on this
globe. But the barometer is falling; the wind probably will not remain
in that quarter long, but will shift round to the west. I only hope
for this once the barometer may prove a false prophet. I have become
rather sanguine; things have been going pretty well for so long;
and October, a month which last year's experience had made me dread,
has been a month of marked advance, if only it doesn't end badly.
"The wind to-day, however, was to cost a life. The mill, which had
been repaired after the mishap to the cog-wheel the other day, was set
going again. In the afternoon a couple of the puppies began fighting
over a bone, when one of them fell underneath one of the cog-wheels on
the axle of the mill, and was dragged in between it and the deck. Its
poor little body nearly made the whole thing come to a standstill;
and, unfortunately, no one was on the spot to stop it in time. I
heard the noise, and rushed on deck; the puppy had just been drawn
out nearly dead; the whole of its stomach was torn open. It gave
a faint whine, and was at once put out of its misery. Poor little
frolicsome creature! Only a little while ago you were gambolling
around, enjoying an innocent romp with your brothers and sisters;
then came the thigh-bone of a bear trundling along the deck from the
galley; you and the others made a headlong rush for it, and now there
you lie, cruelly lacerated and dead as a herring. Fate is inexorable!
"Sunday, October 31st. North latitude 82° 0.2'; east longitude 114°
9'. It is late in the evening, and my head is bewildered, as if I
had been indulging in a regular debauch, but it was a debauch of a
very innocent nature.
"A grand banquet to-day to celebrate the eighty-second degree of
latitude. The observation gave 82° 0.2' last night, and we have now
certainly drifted a little farther north. Honey-cakes (gingerbread)
were baked for the occasion first-class honey-cakes, too, you may
take my word for it; and then, after a refreshing snow-shoe run,
came a festal banquet. Notices were stuck up in the saloon requesting
the guests to be punctual at dinner-time, for the cook had exerted
himself to the utmost of his power. The following deeply felt lines
by an anonymous poet also appeared on a placard:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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