absolutely decided until some one flies over. The evening of the 29th the dam closed considerably and the distance now between the two boats could scarcely be more than 1 kilo as the crow flies. In the evening Dietrichson, Ellsworth, Feucht and Omdal went over to see if it would be possible to bring petrol back with them, but the ice was moving and they had to make a long detour to get back again. They tried to bring one petrol can with them, but were forced to leave it on the ice. “As soon as we have got two cans of petrol here,” said I in my diary, “we shall start for Spitzbergen. By our bearings we can take it for granted that the territory from here to the Pole is just the same--drift-ice and again drift-ice. And what should we do there? Substantiate the existence of land. But what is in that? Nothing--it is not worth while. But--perhaps it will be possible to find a place to rise from here. The prospects are not too good but conditions can change quickly.” The next day passed and we succeeded in bringing the petrol in safety to our own floe. Later at eventide Dietrichson and Omdal crossed to N 24 to bring back most of the provisions and equipment which had been left there. The temperature was rising steadily, and was now about -6° c. By the 1st of June we had let the new frozen ice get an opportunity to set and become strong enough for a track. That day we tested its thickness and found that it was eight inches (solid enough for our purpose). As soon as we discovered this condition we started to level the track; it was not so easy as one might think. Although the new frozen ice was fine and level in long stretches there were places where the old ice had taken the liberty of mingling with the new and upsetting conditions entirely. Here the floe was on the slant, with ditches and unevenesses, which gave us much hard work, but it was necessary to get the machine down from the height above to the new ice. For this a slide was necessary. It is difficult to calculate how much we hacked away and how much we filled in, before we completed the work, but it was many tons of ice and snow. By twilight we had finished the track and the slide.