After passing the winter as was arranged, the _Antarctica_ had proceeded to Tierra del Fuego and South Georgia, had picked up all the members of the expedition, and had steamed away to the South so as to reach the winter station early in January. As she advanced, however, she found the sea so blocked with ice that she could not follow the course she had sailed the previous year. When she arrived at Hope Bay, some miles to the north of the station, Professor Andersson and two companions landed with sledges and sufficient provisions to last nine men for two months. It was their intention to proceed over the ice to the station, while the _Antarctica_ steamed away to the west, in the hopes of finding an opening through the ice which would enable her to reach the station. If, on the arrival of the relief party at the station, the _Antarctica_ had not appeared, they were to return, with the other six, and wait for the ship at Hope Bay. Before proceeding over the ice to the station the three built a small stone hut, where they stored the greater portion of the stores, and with the remainder on their sledge they started on their march. But the ice, which had been too compact for the ship to penetrate, was not compact enough for them to traverse. Delay after delay was caused by leads and channels, until it was forced upon them that they would not be able to reach the station until the summer was over and the ice formed solid over the sea. As by that time the _Antarctica_ ought to have arrived at the station, they decided their best course was to return to the depôt at Hope Bay and await her advent. They did so, but no ship appeared, and, with the end of summer, it was clear to them that something had happened either to the ship or at the station, and that the only thing left for them to do was to make themselves as comfortable as they could. With the limited store of provisions they had with them it was necessary to go on short rations at once, though the capture of some penguins, the shooting of seals, and the catching of fish by means of a hook made from a strap buckle and a line of sealskin torn into strips, augmented their stock of food and gave them, also, in the blubber of the seals, fuel and light. Cooped up in their little stone hut, which was only built large enough, in the first instance, as a place to hold their stores, they went through the dreary months of winter with a contentment which was the very acme of heroism.