wasn’t discovered till he was half-way between Flekkero and the mainland, where he was probably going in search of a joint of mutton.  Wisting and Lindstrom, who were then in charge of the dogs, put off in a boat, and finally succeeded in overtaking him, but they had a hard tussle before they managed to get him on board.  Afterwards Wisting had a swimming-race with the Colonel, but I don’t remember what was the result.  We can expect a great deal of these dogs.  There’s Johansen’s tent over in the corner; there is not much to be said about his dogs.  The most remarkable of them is Camilla.  She is an excellent mother, and brings up her children very well; she usually has a whole army of them, too.

“Now I expect you have seen dogs enough, so, if you have no objection, I will show you underground Framheim and what goes on there.  I may just as well add that we are proud of this work, and you will probably find that we have a right to be.  We’ll begin with Hassel, as his department is nearest.”

We now went in the direction of the house, passed its western end, and soon arrived at an erection that looked like a derrick.  Underneath it was a large trap-door.  Where the three legs of the derrick met, there was made fast a small block, and through the block ran a rope, made fast at one end to the trap-door.  A weight hung at the other end, some feet above the surface of the snow.

“Now we are at Hassel’s,” said my companion.  It was a good thing he could not see me, for I must have looked rather foolish.  At Hassel’s?  I said to myself.  What in the world does the man mean?  We were standing on the bare Barrier.

“Do you hear that noise?  That’s Hassel sawing wood.”

Now he bent down and raised the heavy trap-door easily with the help of the weight.  Broad steps of snow led down, deep down, into the Barrier.  We left the trap-door open, so as to have the benefit of the little daylight there was.  My host went first; I followed.  After descending four or five steps, we came to a doorway which was covered with a woollen curtain.  We pushed this aside.  The sound that had first reached me as a low rumbling now became sharper, and I could plainly hear that it was caused by sawing.  We went in.  The room we entered was long and narrow, cut out of the Barrier.  On a solid shelf of snow there lay barrel after barrel arranged in exemplary order; if they were all full of paraffin, I began to understand Lindstrom’s extravagance in lighting his fire in the morning:  here was paraffin enough for several years.  In the middle of the room a lantern was hanging, an ordinary one with wire netting round the glass.  In a dark room it certainly would not have given much light, but in these white surroundings it shone like the sun.  A Primus lamp was burning on the floor.  The thermometer, which hung a little way from the Primus, showed -5deg.  F., so Hassel could hardly complain of the heat, but he had to saw, so it did not matter.