We had before us a great bay, so deep that it was impossible to see the end of it from the crow’s-nest; but for the moment there was no chance of getting in.  The bay was full of great floes —­ sea-ice —­ recently broken up.  We therefore went on a little farther to the eastward to await developments.  Next morning we returned, and after the lapse of a few hours the floes within the bay began to move.  One after another they came sailing out:  the passage was soon free.

As we steered up the bay, we soon saw clearly that here we had every chance of effecting a landing.  All we had to do was to choose the best place.

CHAPTER V

On the Barrier

We had thus arrived on January 14 —­ a day earlier than we had reckoned —­ at this vast, mysterious, natural phenomenon —­ the Barrier.  One of the most difficult problems of the expedition was solved —­ that of conveying our draught animals in sound condition to the field of operations.  We had taken 97 dogs on board at Christiansand; the number had now increased to 116, and practically all of these would be fit to serve in the final march to the South.

The next great problem that confronted us was to find a suitable place on the Barrier for our station.  My idea had been to get everything —­ equipment and provisions —­ conveyed far enough into the Barrier to secure us against the unpleasant possibility of drifting out into the Pacific in case the Barrier should be inclined to calve.  I had therefore fixed upon ten miles as a suitable distance from the edge of the Barrier.  But even our first impression of the conditions seemed to show that we should be spared a great part of this long and troublesome transport.  Along its outer edge the Barrier shows an even, flat surface; but here, inside the bay, the conditions were entirely different.  Even from the deck of the Fram we were able to observe great disturbances of the surface in every direction; huge ridges with hollows between them extended on all sides.  The greatest elevation lay to the south in the form of a lofty, arched ridge, which we took to be about 500 feet high on the horizon.  But it might be assumed that this ridge continued to rise beyond the range of vision.

Our original hypothesis that this bay was due to underlying land seemed, therefore, to be immediately confirmed.  It did not take long to moor the vessel to the fixed ice-foot, which here extended for about a mile and a quarter beyond the edge of the Barrier.  Everything had been got ready long before.  Bjaaland had put our ski in order, and every man had had his right pairs fitted.  Ski-boots had long ago been tried on, time after time, sometimes with one, sometimes with two pairs of stockings.  Of course it turned out that the ski-boots were on the small side.  To get a bootmaker to make roomy boots is, I believe, an absolute impossibility.  However, with two pairs of stockings we could always get along in the neighbourhood of the ship.  For longer journeys we had canvas boots, as already mentioned.