In addition to remaking the sledges, Bjaaland had to get the ski ready.  To fit the big, broad boots we should wear, the Huitfeldt fittings had to be much broader than usual, and we had such with us, so that Bjaaland had only to change them.  The ski-bindings were like the snow-goggles; everyone had his own patent.  I found the bindings that Bjaaland had put on for himself so efficient that I had no hesitation in ordering similar ones for myself; and it may be said to their honour, and to the honour of him who made them, that they were first-rate, and served me well during the whole trip.  They were, after all, only a retention of the old system, but, with the help of hooks and eyes, they could be put on and taken off in an instant.  And those were the conditions we demanded of our bindings —­ that they should hold the foot as firmly as a vice, and should be easy to hook on and take off.  For we always had to take them off on the journey; if one left one’s bindings out for a night, they were gone in the morning.  The dogs looked upon them as a delicacy.  The toe-strap also had to be removed in the evening; in other words, the ski had to be left absolutely bare.

Johansen, besides his packing, was occupied in making weights and tent-pegs.  The weights were very ingeniously made; the steelyard system was adopted.  If they were never used, it was not the fault of the weights —­ they were good enough.  But the reason was that we had all our provisions so arranged that they could be taken without being weighed.  We were all weighed on August 6, and it then appeared that Lindstrom was the heaviest, with 13 st. 8 lbs.  On that occasion he was officially christened “Fatty.”  The tent-pegs Johansen made were the opposite of what such pegs usually are; in other words, they were flat instead of being high.  We saw the advantage at once.  Besides being so much lighter, they were many times stronger.  I do not know that we ever broke a peg on the trip; possibly we lost one or two.  Most of them were brought home undamaged.

Hassel worked at his whip-lashes down in the petroleum store.  It was an uncomfortable place for him —­ always cold; but he had the lashes ready by the time he had promised them.

Prestrud made charts and copied out tables.  Six of us were to have these copies.  In each sledge there was a combined provision and observation book, bearing the same number as the sledge.  It contained, first, an exact list of the provisions contained in each case on that sledge, and, in addition, the necessary tables for our astronomical observations.  In these books each man kept a daily account of every scrap of provisions he took out; in this way we could always check the contents of the cases, and know what quantity of provisions we had.  Farther on in the book the observations were entered, and the distance covered for the day, course, and so on.