During the night the wind dropped and the morning brought the finest weather, calm and clear.  It was a pleasure to work on days like this.  Both men and dogs were in the best of spirits.  On these journeys between the ship and the station we were constantly hunting seals, but we only took those that came in our way.  We never had to go far to find fresh meat.  We used to come suddenly upon a herd of them; they were then shot, flayed, and loaded on the sledges with the provisions and building materials.  The dogs feasted in those days —­ they had as much warm flesh as they wanted.

On January 20 we had taken up all the building materials, and could then turn our attention to provisions and stores.  The work went merrily, backwards and forwards, and the journey to the Fram in the morning with empty sledges was specially enjoyable.  The track was now well worn and hard, and resembled a good Norwegian country road more than anything else.  The going was splendid.  On coming out of the tent at six o’clock in the morning one was instantly greeted with joy by one’s own twelve dogs.  They barked and howled in emulation, tugged and jerked at their chains to get to their master, and jumped and danced about with joy.  Then one would first go down the line and say “Good-morning” to each of them in turn, patting them and saying a few words.  Splendid beasts they were.  The one who was taken notice of showed every sign of happiness.  The most petted of our domestic dogs could not have shown greater devotion than these tamed wolves.  All the time the others were yelling and pulling at their chains to get at the one who was being petted, for they are jealous in the extreme.  When they had all received their share of attention the harness was brought out, and then the jubilation broke out afresh.  Strange as it may seem, I can assert that these animals love their harness.  Although they must know that it means hard work, they all show signs of the greatest rapture at the sight of it.  I must hasten to add, however, that this only happens at home.  Long and fatiguing sledge journeys show a very different state of things.  When it came to harnessing, the first trouble of the day began.  It was impossible to get them to stand still.  The full meal of the previous evening, followed by the night’s rest, had given them such a superabundance of energy and joy of life that nothing could make them stand still.  They had to have a taste of the whip, and yet it was a pity to start that.  After having securely anchored the sledge, one was ready at last with one’s team of six dogs harnessed.  Now it might be thought that all was plain sailing and that one had only to cast off one’s moorings and be taken straight down to the ship.  But that was far from being the case.  Round about the camp a number of objects had collected in a short time, such as packing-cases, building materials, empty sledges, etc., and to steer clear of these was the great problem of the morning.  The dogs’ greatest interest was, of course, concentrated upon these objects, and one had to be extremely lucky to avoid a spill.