Looking round, he saw that an enormous bear was throwing itself on his companion, who was lying on his back. He tried to seize his gun, which was lying on the fore-deck, but the kayack slipped out of his grasp into the water. “You must look sharp if you want to be in time,” said Johansen quite quietly, and Nansen, making a supreme effort, just managed to clutch his gun and shoot the bear before it was on its prey.
After immense labour they succeeded in reaching Frederic Jackson Island, and here they decided to spend the winter, as they realised that it was too late in the season for them to attempt the long and dangerous voyage to Spitzbergen. Accordingly they set about building a hut and shooting walruses and bears, of which they found such an abundance that they had soon placed themselves beyond the possibility of starvation. The hut was small, but it was fairly comfortable. “By the aid of the lamps,” says Nansen, “we succeeded in keeping the temperature at about freezing-point in the middle of the hut, while it was, of course, lower at the walls. The latter were covered with a thick coating of frost and ice, which in the lamplight gave them such a splendidly marmoreal appearance that in our happier moments we could dream that we dwelt in marble halls.”
They had nothing whatever to do, so for twenty hours out of the twenty-four they remained in bed, which, consisting as it did of huge, hard stones, was not particularly comfortable. Christmas Day they celebrated by turning their shirts inside out. Their clothes, by the way, were always a source of worry, for washing was a problem which they were quite unable to solve. They succeeded in keeping their persons fairly clean, partly by scraping themselves with knives and partly by rubbing in bear’s fat and wiping it off with moss; but though they tried the effect of boiling their underclothing and then scraping it with a knife, the plan did not answer very well, and they pined for a cake of soap.
On May 19 they started off once more, and managed to make fairly good progress either on the ice or in open water. They had one or two accidents, one of which might have resulted disastrously, for the kayack which had their provisions and guns on board started off on a voyage on its own account, leaving them on shore. Nansen was obliged to swim after it, and became so exhausted in the struggle with the bitter water that he was only just able to reach it and scramble over the gunwale. Their troubles, however, were now at an end, for, when preparing breakfast one morning, Nansen heard dogs barking. At first he could hardly believe his ears, but the sound came nearer and nearer till at last there could be no doubt about it. Rushing off on his skis to learn the solution of the mystery, he met F. G. Jackson, from whom he received the warmest welcome. As, however, we have described the meeting in the chapter devoted to the Jackson expedition, we need not dwell on it again here.
In the meanwhile the Fram drifted steadily on with the ice, reaching, on October 16, almost as high a latitude as that attained by Nansen. She pursued her journey to the edge of the pack without misadventure, and after a series of blasting operations she was set free of the ice and made her way home in safety.
SPITZBERGEN
CHAPTER XXXI
CONWAY AND ANDRÉE
Though Nordenskiöld had succeeded in exploring North-East Land pretty thoroughly, and had shown that it is practically nothing but one large ice-field, for many years very little attention had been given to West Spitzbergen, and up till the end of last century nothing whatever was known about its formation or its geographical features. In 1896, however, the famous mountaineer, Sir Martin Conway, seeking for fresh worlds to conquer, decided to repair thither himself and to elucidate once and for all the mystery that surrounded that part of the world.
Information concerning the nature of the regions over which he proposed to travel was, of course, difficult to obtain. However he read all the literature that existed upon the subject, and having equipped himself with the Nansen sledges and ponies which, he gathered, would be absolutely essential for success, he started off on his travels with a party consisting of Mr E. J. Garwood, his photographer, Dr Gregory, the geologist, Trevor Battye, the ornithologist, and, as artist, his nephew, H. E. Conway.