[4] They were 12 feet long, 1 foot 9½ inches broad, and rode about 5 inches above the snow.
[5] Compare my description of “finsko,” in The First Crossing of Greenland, pp. 47 and 48.
[6] I had also had prepared a large quantity of pemmican, consisting of equal parts of meat-powder and vegetable fat (from the cocoanut). This pemmican, however, proved to be rather an unfortunate invention; even the dogs would not eat it after they had tasted it once or twice. Perhaps this is accounted for by the fact that vegetable fat is heavily digested, and contains acids which irritate the mucous membranes of the stomach and throat.
Chapter IV
We Say Good-bye to the “Fram”
At last by midday on March 14th we finally left the Fram to the noise of a thundering salute. For the third time farewells and mutual good wishes were exchanged. Some of our comrades came a little way with us, but Sverdrup soon turned back in order to be on board for dinner at 1 o’clock. It was on the top of a hummock that we two said good-bye to each other; the Fram was lying behind us, and I can remember how I stood watching him as he strode easily homeward on his snow-shoes. I half wished I could turn back with him and find myself again in the warm saloon; I knew only too well that a life of toil lay before us, and that it would be many a long day before we should again sleep and eat under a comfortable roof; but that that time was going to be so long as it really proved to be, none of us then had any idea. We all thought that either the expedition would succeed, and that we should return home that same year, or—that it would not succeed.
The Start from the “Fram.” March 14, 1895
Sverdrup Nansen Henriksen Mogstad Johansen Jacobsen Scott-Hansen Juell Pettersen Amundsen