“For dinner, which was eaten as usual amid cheerful conversation, we had green-pea soup, roast sirloin, with a glass of aquavit, and caramel pudding; so it may be seen that the cook was not behindhand in opening tins, even in a hurricane.  After dinner we enjoyed our usual Sunday cigar, while the canary, which has become Kristensen’s pet, and hangs in his cabin, sang at the top of its voice.”

On March 14 we saw the last iceberg; during the whole trip we had seen and passed between 500 and 600 bergs.

The wind held steady from the north-east for a week and a half, and I was beginning to think we should be stuck down here to play the Flying Dutchman.  There was every possible sign of a west wind, but it did not come.  On the night of the 17th it cleared; light cirrus clouds covered the sky, and there was a ring about the moon.  This, together with the heavy swell and the pronounced fall of the barometer, showed that something might be expected.  And, sure enough, on Sunday, March 19, we were in a cyclone.  By manoeuvring according to the rules for avoiding a cyclone in the southern hemisphere, we at any rate went well clear of one semicircle.  About 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon the barometer was down to 27.56 inches (700 millimetres), the lowest barometer reading I have ever heard of.  From noon to 4 p.m. there was a calm, with heavy sea.  Immediately after a gale sprang up from the north-west, and in the course of a couple of days it slowly moderated to a breeze from the same quarter.

Sunday, March 5, a hundred icebergs; Sunday March 12, a hurricane; and Sunday, March 19, a cyclone:  truly three pleasant “days of rest.”

The curves given on the next page, which show the course of barometric pressure for a week, from Monday to Monday, are interesting.

By way of comparison a third curve is given from the north-east trade, where there is an almost constant breeze and fine weather.

On this trip the fore-saloon was converted into a sail-loft, where Ronne and Hansen carried on their work, each in his watch.  The after-saloon was used as a common mess-room, as it is warmer, and the motion is far less felt than forward.

From the middle of March it looked as if the equinoctial gales were over, for we had quite fine weather all the way to Buenos Aires.  Cape Horn was passed on March 31 in the most delightful weather —­ a light westerly breeze, not a cloud in the sky, and only a very slight swell from the west.  Who would have guessed that such splendid weather was to be found in these parts? —­ and that in March, the most stormy month of the year.

Lieutenant Gjertsen and Kutschin collected plankton all the time; the latter smiled all over his face whenever he chanced to get one or two “tadpoles” in his tow-net.

From the Falkland Islands onward the Fram was washed and painted, so that we might not present too “Polar” an appearance on arrival at Buenos Aires.