The 8th of June brought us fog and half a degree of heat. It drizzled the whole time and we were exceptionally uncomfortable. We were now faced by another hard task, namely, turning the machine round in the deep wet snow. We were unused to this work and consequently were fairly clumsy. In addition to this we had to decrease our daily rations from 300 to 250 grammes, insufficient to keep up our strength. Our work in the deep wet snow of this plain was wearying. More wearying than ever before. Do you remember, comrades, how we made the turning platform? You will scarcely have forgotten that? The machine had to be driven up to the starting place and then swung round 180° to face the right direction. The snow as already said was deep and wet, and any turning of the machine under these conditions was hardly possible. What should we do now? There was only one thing to be done, namely, to dig down to the ice and turn the machine on that. The snow here was from two to three feet deep and every spadeful was a heavy weight to lift, particularly as we used the big shovels. We cleared a circular place with a diameter of fifteen meters. That got the name “turning-table.” Had we solved our problem by this you might have forgotten the turning-table by now, but when we tried to turn the machine, we found that the skids caught in the ice and stopped the whole progress. Again we were faced with the question--“What shall we do?” And some one was struck by a bright idea--to lay a snow-skate underneath. We all agreed the idea was good, but to accomplish it was not easy. We must lift the machine and it weighed four and one-half tons. But even that did not frighten us. It was not to a great height that we had to lift it--just about two centimeters, but only five men were available while the sixth must place the snow-skate underneath. Never mind, come on, my heroes. Lay your shoulders to the wheel and lift. And then five backs are bent in unison, and one! two! three!--we had got it up on the snow-skate at last. We continued working steadily, regardless of time’s flight, from 4 A.M. on the 8th of June to 4 A.M. the next day. During that time starting place No. 5 was worked on, tried, and approved. The fog lay thick and heavy while the drizzle continued all day on the 9th, but Riiser-Larsen insisted that the track should be completed. Think now what a problem we had before us when we started to work that morning. A track--500 meters long--twelve meters broad--should be made in wet snow three feet in depth. The snow cleared away from the track must be thrown at least six yards away from each side so that it should not get in the way of the machine. We had lived on 250 grammes daily for several days so you will not be astonished when I say that by evening we were absolutely worn out. I watched, with wonder, the two giants who wielded the shovels all day. We others did what we could, but our work was trifling compared to theirs. On the 11th we set to again after