One question which always cropped up whenever the North Pole flight was discussed was in regard to the cold, which one thought would be found unbearable by the crew. Let me say at once that it did not bother us in the least. Even in the case of the pilot, who is so closely tied to his place, it proved to be of no great discomfort. This of course was on account of the carefulness with which we selected our kit, thanks to the long experience of our leaders in the polar regions. I was rather afraid about my hands and feet, but the clothes, which are described in another part of this book, stood the test splendidly. Meantime one hour after another passed and we had soon made a flight of eight hours duration. Reckoning on a speed of 140 kilometers per hour, that ought to have brought us directly into the neighborhood of the Pole. Our position now depended solely on how strong the wind had been blowing against us, or in other words, what ground speed we had made. But what was to be done? Landing places were still not to be found. Omdal came forward to me and shook his head for once, pointing to the icefields below us. Then we suddenly saw--for the first time since we went above the fog-belts at Spitzbergen--the sun playing on blue water, which was rippling under the influence of a slight breeze. We could hardly believe our eyes. N 25 changed its course down towards the tempting water and started slowly to descend. We followed. The water-lane was apparently large enough to land on, but was divided into several portions by icebergs and banks of snow and ice. It was hopeless to land on the ice round about and it presented an increasingly worse appearance the lower we got. I saw N 25 land in an arm, or, speaking correctly, in a branch of the waterway, where as far as I could see there was very little room. I came to the conclusion, in any case, that there was only room for one plane, and therefore I flew round a little, and landed on an ideal place a little to the south, in a fine little lake. With slow speed we proceeded on to the biggest ice-floe we could see, and secured N 24 there. I noticed that the aft motor stopped of its own accord as soon as I had throttled it down. The first surprise we met with, as soon as we arrived on the ice, was a big seal which, inquisitive as usual, put its head out and looked enquiringly over us. I am not sure who was more surprised, we or it. Never had we heard about animal existence so far north, and the seal had certainly never seen a flying machine before, either there or further south.