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
On Sunday, August 20th, we had, for us, uncommonly fine weather--blue
sea, brilliant sunshine, and light wind, still from the northeast. In
the afternoon we ran in to the Kjellman Islands. These we could
recognize from their position on Nordenskiöld's map, but south of
them we found many unknown ones. They all had smoothly rounded forms,
these Kjellman Islands, like rocks that have been ground smooth by
the glaciers of the Ice Age. The Fram anchored on the north side
of the largest of them, and while the boiler was being refitted,
some of us went ashore in the evening for some shooting. We had not
left the ship when the mate, from the crow's-nest, caught sight of
reindeer. At once we were all agog; every one wanted to go ashore,
and the mate was quite beside himself with the hunter's fever, his
eyes as big as saucers, and his hands trembling as though he were
drunk. Not until we were in the boat had we time to look seriously
for the mate's reindeer. We looked in vain--not a living thing was
to be seen in any direction. Yes--when we were close inshore we
at last descried a large flock of geese waddling upward from the
beach. We were base enough to let a conjecture escape us that these
were the mate's reindeer--a suspicion which he at first rejected with
contempt. Gradually, however, his confidence oozed away. But it is
possible to do an injustice even to a mate. The first thing I saw
when I sprang ashore was old reindeer tracks. The mate had now the
laugh on his side, ran from track to track, and swore that it was
reindeer he had seen.
When we got up on to the first height we saw several reindeer on
flat ground to the south of us; but, the wind being from the north,
we had to go back and make our way south along the shore till we got
to leeward of them. The only one who did not approve of this plan
was the mate, who was in a state of feverish eagerness to rush
straight at some reindeer he thought he had seen to the east, which,
of course, was an absolutely certain way to clear the field of every
one of them. He asked and received permission to remain behind with
Hansen, who was to take a magnetic observation; but had to promise
not to move till he got the order.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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