11 August was a regular Tycho Brahe-day [unlucky day]. At once in the morning I came into the water and so did my sledge so that nearly everything became wet through. S. ran in to F.’s sledge and broke the boat with the grapnel. All the sledges turned somersaults repeatedly during the course of the day. Mine was twice turned completely up and down. The going was good but the country terrible . . . A peculiar incident happened on crossing a lead. We stood quite at a loss what to do for the edges of the ice were wretched and the channel so shallow that the boat could not float. Our ordinary methods failed us altogether. Then while we were speaking the ice-floe broke beneath Fraenkel and so we obtained a bit of ice of considerable size and with the assistance of this piece we then made the crossing quite cleverly. We have not been able to keep the course but have been obliged to go both to the north and to the east but endeavour to go S 50° W. Our distance today probably did not exceed 3.5 km. (2.1 miles).
At 4.30 p.m. our longitude was 30° E. At midday our latitude was 81° 54’ 7. F. thought he saw land and it was really so like land that we changed the course in that direction but it was found to be merely a peculiarly shaped large hummock.
13 August 5 p.m. start . . . Tried in vain to get a seal. The ice reasonably good. In a fissure found a little fish which was pretty unafraid and seemed to be astonished at sight of us. I killed him with the shovel . . . Just when we had passed the fissure S-g cried ‘three bears’. We were at once in motion and full of excited expectation. Warned by our preceding disappointments we now went to work carefully. We concealed ourselves behind a hummock and waited but no bears came. Then I chose myself as a bait and crept forward along the plain whistling softly. The she-bear became attentive, came forward winding me but turned round again and lay down. At last it was too cold for me to lie immovably in the snow and then I called out to the others that we should rush up to the bears. We did so. Then the she-bear came towards me but was met by a shot which missed. I sprang up however and shot again while the bears that were fleeing stopped for a moment, then the she-bear was wounded at a distance of 80 paces but ran a little way whereupon I dropped her on the spot at 94 paces. My 4th shot dropped one cub. Then the third one ran but was wounded by Fraenkel and dropped by Strindberg who had had a longer way to go and so could not come up as quickly as I. There was great joy in the caravan and we cut our bears in pieces with pleasure and loaded our sledges with not less than 42 kilogrammes (138 lbs) i.e., with fresh meat for 23 days. Among the experiences we made with regard to the value of the parts of the bear it may be mentioned that we found the heart, brain and kidneys very palatable. The tongue too is well worth taking. The meat on the ribs is excellent. In the evening I shot an ivory gull. The work of cutting up the bears, etc. gave us so much to do that we did not march much this day. The wind has now swung round to SE so that we hope to drift westwards. Today the weather has been extremely beautiful and that is a good thing for otherwise the work would have been ticklish. When a bear is hit he brings out a roar and tries to flee as quick as he can. We have been butchers the whole day.
22 August [. . .] The country today has been terrible and I repeat what I wrote yesterday that we have not previously had such a large district with ice so pressed. There can scarcely be found a couple of square metres (yards) of ice which does not present evident traces of pressure and the entire country consisting of a boundless field of large and small hummocks. One cannot speak of any regularity among them. The leads today have been broken to pieces and the floes small, but in general it has been easy to get across. Now they are so frozen that neither ferrying nor rafting can now be employed. Today a lead changed just when we had come across it (5 minutes later and it would have been impossible) and we had an opportunity of seeing a very powerful pressing. The floes came at a great speed and there was a creaking round about us. It made a strange and magnificent impression. The day has been extremely beautiful. Perhaps the most beautiful we have had. With a specially clear horizon we have again tried to catch sight of Gillis Land but it is impossible to get a glimpse of any part of it. Our course has been S 60° W as on the previous days and the day’s march has probably brought us about 3 min. in the direction of our course. The clear air was utilized by S-g to take lunar distances. He saw haloes on the snow . . . Magnificent Venetian landscape with canals between lofty hummock edges on both sides, water-square with ice-fountain and stairs down to the canals. Divine. Bear-ham several days old exquisite. I massaged F.’s foot. He had been pulling so that his knee went out of joint but it slipped in again but he had no bad effects of it. S-g had a pain in one toe, cause still unknown.
29 August [. . .] The ice as before but the leads are still very extensive and broke so that they are very difficult to cross. It now begins to feel cold. We have seen a bear today but unfortunately he went off at a gallop when he saw that he was noticed. S.’s sledge badly broken and we could only just manage to mend it. We come slowly onwards and I imagine we shall have to make a late autumn journey to reach Mossel bay. The ice and the snow on it are becoming as hard as glass and it is difficult to pull the sledges across it. Today we have tried to go S 45° W as S.’s lunar observations showed that we were rather more to the westward than we had imagined. But to keep a tolerably steady course among the leads is on my word no easy task however. Tonight was the first time I thought of all the lovely things at home. S. and F. on the contrary have long spoken about it. The tent is now always covered with ice inside and the bottom, which is double, feels pretty hard when it is being rolled together. I sweep it clean morning and evening before and after the cooking.
30 August 5 o’cl. p.m. Start. The ice as before and the course too but this was hard to keep for the leads have been difficult to get across. Two Ross’ gulls visible. At last we found ourselves on a floe from which we could not come without rafting. As we had not more than 20 min. left of our march-time we determined to pitch our tent and see if the ice possibly moved during the night. Scarcely had we erected the tent before S. cried out ‘a bear on top of us’. A bear then stood 10 paces from him. I was lying inside the tent sweeping the floor and so could do nothing but F. who was outside caught hold of a gun and gave the bear a shot that made him turn, badly wounded. To save cartridges he was allowed to run a bit but at last he had to be finished off with 3 more shots. The bear however had managed to get down into a broad lead and rolled himself about there but he could not swim far. I threw a grapnel past him and brought him in to the edge of the ice. This however was so thin that we hardly dared to stand on it but at last I succeeded in putting a noose around his neck and one around a foreleg. S. prised with a boat-hook and so we hauled him up on to the ice pretty easily. The situation was photographed and the bear was cut up. Once more we have 30 kilo (66 lbs) of meat, i.e. meat for 14 days if we calculate 0.9 kilo (2 lbs) each morning and evening and 300 (11 oz) for dinner. These quantities are carried next to the body so as not to be frozen. Two Ross’ gulls visible.
31 August [. . .] The sun touched the horizon at midnight. The landscape on fire. The snow a sea of fire. The country fairly good. We could for the first time over broad new ice. First I crept across on all fours to test if it would hold. Then we went across in several places. One ferrying had to be made. The leads were passable but the ice was in lovely movement. It is fine to work the sledges onward through the middle of the crashing ice-pressures round about us. Sometimes a lead closes just when we need it, sometimes it opens suddenly the moment before or after a crossing. I had diarrhoea badly perhaps in consequence of a chill. F.’s sledge badly broken and had to be repaired on the spot. In the evening I took both morphine and opium . . .
3 September [. . .] Today we found ourselves surrounded by broad water-channels of great extent and found ourselves obliged to trust ourselves entirely to the boat. We succeeded in loading everything on it and then rowed for 3 hours at a pretty good pace towards the Seven Islands (our goal). It was with a rather solemn feeling when at 1h 50 o’cl. p.m. we began this new way of travelling gl
iding slowly over the mirror-like surface of the water between large ice-floes loaded with giant-like hummocks. Only the shriek of ivory gulls and the splashing of the seals when they dived and the short orders of the steersman broke the silence. We knew that we were moving onwards more quickly than usual and at every turn of the leads we asked ourselves in silence if we might not possibly journey on in this glorious way to the end. We called it glorious for the everlasting hauling of the sledges had become tiring I fancy the last few days and it would be a great relief for us to travel some days in another way. But at 5 o’cl. our joy came to an end; we then entered a bay in the ice which immediately afterwards was closed by a floe so that we could go neither onwards nor backwards. We were satisfied however for things had gone well, the boat was excellent and there was room for all our luggage.
9 September [. . .] Our meat supply is beginning to come to an end and we shoot two ivory gulls to supplement it. We do not like to shoot unless we can get at least two ivory gulls at one shot. They are delicate birds but I think they cost a lot of ammunition. For the last few days F. has had a pain in his left foot. I give him massage morning and evening and rub on liniment. Today (the 9 in p.m.) I have opened a large pus-blister washed it with sublimate solution and put on a bandage. Now I hope it will heal for it is hard for us to be without F.’s full strength. This is more than needful with our trying work. Our attacks of diarrhoea seem to have stopped. Yesterday I had a motion for the first time for at least 4 days but in spite of that did not notice any diarrhoea. The amount of the excretion was moderate and of normal consistence. F. has frequent motions and the consistence seems to be rather fluid but he does not complain of pains in the stomach and of diarrhoea as he has done almost constantly before . . .
Just now I had to leave off writing in order to fire a shot and drop two ivory gulls. Such birds always gather around our camp. Oh if we could shoot a seal or a bear just now. We need it so much . . . 6 o’cl.
F.’s foot is now so bad that he cannot pull his sledge but can only help by pushing. S. and I take it in turns to go back and bring up F.’s sledge. This tries our strength. We could not manage more than 6 hours’ march especially as the country was extremely difficult. Just when we stopped I happened to fall into the water, for an ice-floe which to all appearance and on being tested with the boat-hook seemed to be solid and on which I jumped down proved to consist of nothing but a hard mass of ice-sludge which went to pieces when I landed on it. I flung myself on my back and floated thus until the others reached me a couple of oars with the help of which I crawled up again . . .
17 September Since I wrote last in my diary much has changed in truth. We laboured onwards with the sledges in the ordinary way but found at last that the new-fallen snow’s and character did not allow us to continue quickly enough. F.’s foot which still did not allow him to pull compelled me and S. to go back in turns and pull forward F.’s sledge too. One of S.’s feet was also a little out of order. Our meat was almost at an end and the crossings between the floes became more and more difficult in consequence of the ice-sludge. But above all we found that the current and the wind irresistibly carried us down into the jaws between North East Land and Frans Joseph’s Land and that we had not the least chance to reach North East Land. It was during the 12th and 13th Sept. when we were obliged to lie still on account of violent NW wind that we at last discovered the necessity of submitting to the inevitable, i.e. and wintering on the ice . . .
Our first resolution was to work our way across to a neighbouring ice-floe which was bigger and stronger and richer in ice-humps than that on which we were, which was low and small and full of saltwater pools, showing that it was composed of small pieces which would probably easily separate in the spring. We came to the new floe by rafting with the boat and soon found a suitable building-plot consisting of a large piece of ice which we hollowed out to some extent. The sides and the parts that were missing we supplied by filling up with blocks of ice and snow over which we threw water and thus made solid and durable. On the 15th we at last succeeded in getting a seal, as I had the luck to put a ball right through its head so that it was killed on the spot and could easily be brought ‘ashore’.
Every part of the seal tastes very nice (fried). We are especially fond of the meat and the blubber. May we but shoot some score of seals so that we can save ourselves. The bears seem to have disappeared and of other game there are visible only ivory gulls, which, it is true, are not to be despised, but which cost too much ammunition. The ivory gulls come and sit on the roof of the tent. Remarkably enough the fulmars seem to have disappeared and of other birds only a little auk or possibly a young black guillemot have been visible during the last few days. F.’s foot is better now but will hardly be well before a couple of weeks. S.’s feet are also bad. I have made in order a landing-net to catch plankton or anything else that can be found in the water we shall see how it succeeds; a fortunate result of the attempt may I think somewhat improve our difficult position. Our humour is pretty good although joking and smiling are not of ordinary occurrence. My young comrades hold out better than I had ventured to hope. The fact that during the last few days we have drifted towards the south at such a rate contributed essentially I think to keeping up our courage. Our latitude on the 12 Sept. was 81° 21’ and on the 15th we had drifted with a strong NW wind down to 80° 45’. Longitude in the latter case is I am certain considerably more easterly. Thus our drift in 72 hours amounts to about 2/3 of a degree of latitude and since then the wind has blown fresh from the same or a more northerly direction. Possibly we may be able to drive far southwards quickly enough and obtain our nourishment from the sea. Perhaps too it will not be so cold on the sea as on the land. He who lives will see. Now it is time to work. The day has been a remarkable one for us by our having seen land today for the first time since 11 July. It is undoubtedly New Iceland that we have had before our eyes . . .
There is no question of our attempting to go on shore for the entire island seems to be one single block of ice with a glacier border. It appears however not to be absolutely inaccessible on the east and west points. We saw a bear under the land and in the water I saw a couple of flocks (of 4) of those ‘black guillemot youngsters’. I think a couple of little auks were also visible. The ivory gulls are seen half a score together. On the other hand the water seems to be poor in small animals for dragging gave no result (landing-net). A seal was seen but it was much terrified. We have seen no walrus. Our arrival at New Iceland is remarkable because it points to a colossal drift viz. of more than 1 degree of latitude since 12 Sept. If we drift in this way some weeks more perhaps we may save ourselves on one of the islands east of Spitzbergen. It makes us feel anxious that we have not more game within shooting-distance. Our provisions must soon and richly be supplemented if we are to have any prospect of being able to hold out for a time.
19 September [. . .] Today S. has been very busy house-building in accordance with a method he has invented. This consists of snow and fresh water being mixed after which the entire mass is built up into a wall and allowed to freeze. The work is both solid and neat. In a couple of days we shall probably have the baking-oven (i.e., the sleeping room) ready . . . The thickness of the ice of our floe at ‘the great cargo-quay’ has been measured and found to be 1.4–1.3–1.5m (4.6–4.3–4.95 ft) . . .
23 September Today all three of us have been working busily on the hut cementing together ice-blocks. We have got on very well and the hut now begins to take form a little. After a couple more days of such weather and work it should not take long until we are able to move in. We can probably carry our supplies in there the day after tomorrow. This is very necessary, as mortar we employ snow mixed with water and of this mass, which is handled by S. with great skill he is also making a vaulted roof over the last parts between the walls. We have now a very good arrangement of the day with 8 hours’ work beginning with 2½ hours’ work, thereupon breakfast ¾ and afterwards work until 4.45 o’cl. when we dine and take supper in
one meal. We have now also tried the meat of the great seal and have found that it tastes excellent. One of the very best improvements in the cooking is that of adding blood to the sauce for the steak. This makes it thick and it tastes as if we had bread. I cannot believe but that blood contains much carbohydrate, for our craving for bread is considerably less since we began to use blood in the food. We all think so. We have also found everything eatable both as regards bear, great seal, seal and ivory gull (bear-liver of course excepted). For want of time we have not yet been able to cut up and weigh our animal but I think we now have meat and ham until on in the spring. We must however shoot more so as to be able to have larger rations and to get more fuel and light.
29 September [. . .] Our floe is diminished in a somewhat alarming degree close to our hut. The ice pressings bring the shores closer and closer to us. But we have a large and old hummock between the hut and the shore and hope that this will stop the pressure. This sounds magnificent when there is pressure but otherwise it does not appeal to us.
Thickn. of ice 1.1–1.2–1.5–1.9 (3.6–3.9–4.95–6.27 ft) have been measured by a new fissure which has arisen in our floe. Yesterday evening the 28 we moved into our hut which was christened ‘the home’. We lay there last night and found it rather nice. But it will become much better of course. We must have the meat inside to protect ourselves against the bears. The ice in N.I. glacier is evidently stratified in a horizontal direction. The day before yesterday it rained a great part of the day which I suppose ought to be considered extremely remarkable at this time of the year and in this degree of latitude.
Survivor: The Autobiography Page 4
