I now went back to the house, and saw how they all —­ almost —­ made use of the vapour-bath.  By a quarter-past five all the bathing was concluded, and everyone put on his furs; it was evident that they were going out.  I followed the first man who left the hut; he was provided with a lantern, and indeed it was wanted.  The weather had changed:  a south-west wind had sprung up suddenly, and now the air was thick with snow.  It was not a fall of snow, for one could see the stars in the zenith, but snow caught up by the wind and whirled along.  A man had to know the surroundings well to find his way now; one had to feel —­ it was impossible to keep one’s eyes open.  I took up a position in lee of a snow-drift, and waited to see what would happen.  The dogs did not seem to be inconvenienced by the change of weather; some of them lay curled up in a ring, with their nose under their tail, on the snow, while others were running about.  One by one the men came out; each had a lantern in his hand.  As they arrived at the place where the dogs were, each was surrounded by his team, who followed him to the tents with joyous howls.  But everything did not pass off peacefully; I heard —­ I think it was in Bjaaland’s tent —­ a deafening noise going on, and looked in at the door.  Down there, deep below the surface, they were having a warm time.  All the dogs were mixed up together in one mass:  some were biting, some shrieking, some howling.  In the midst of this mass of raging dogs I saw a human figure swinging round, with a bunch of dog-collars in one hand, while he dealt blows right and left with the other, and blessed the dogs all the time.  I thought of my calves and withdrew.  But the human figure that I had seen evidently won the mastery, as the noise gradually subsided and all became quiet.  As each man got his dogs tied up, he went over to the meat-tent and took a box of cut-up seal meat, which stood on the wall out of the dogs’ reach.  This meat had been cut up earlier in the day by two men.  They took it in turns, I heard; two men had this duty daily.  The dogs were then fed, and half an hour after this was done the camp again lay as I had found it in the morning, quiet and peaceful.  With a temperature of -65deg.  F., and a velocity of twenty-two miles an hour, the south-wester swept over the Barrier, and whirled the snow high into the air above Framheim; but in their tents the dogs lay, full-fed and contented, and felt nothing of the storm.

In the hut preparations for a feast were going on, and now one could really appreciate a good house.  The change from the howling wind, the driving snow, the intense cold, and the absolute darkness, was great indeed when one came in.  Everything was newly washed, and the table was gaily decorated.  Small Norwegian flags were everywhere, on the table and walls.  The festival began at six, and all the “vikings” came merrily in.  Lindstrom had done his best, and that is not saying a little.  I specially admired his powers and his liberality