The two strangers told him that for the moment they were the only inhabitants of the tent out on the edge of the Barrier.  Two of their companions had gone on a tour into the Barrier to make meteorological observations, and were to be away about a week.  The Kainan Maru had gone on another cruise in the direction of King Edward Land.  As far as they knew, it was intended that the ship should be back before February 10, and that all the members of the expedition should then go on board and sail to the north.  Prestrud had invited his two new acquaintances to visit us at Framheim, the sooner the better; they delayed their coming too long, however, for us to be able to wait for them.  If they have since been at Framheim, they will at any rate be able to bear witness that we did our best to make things comfortable for any successors.

When the fog lifted, we found ourselves surrounded by open sea, practically free from ice, on all sides.  A blue-black sea, with a heavy, dark sky above it, is not usually reckoned among the sights that delight the eye.  To our organs of vision it was a real relief to come into surroundings where dark colours predominated.  For months we had been staring at a dazzling sea of white, where artificial means had constantly to be employed to protect the eyes against the excessive flood of light.  As a rule, it was even necessary to limit the exposure of the pupils to a minimum, and to draw the eyelids together.  Now we could once more look on the world with open eyes, literally “without winking “; even such a commonplace thing as this is an experience in one’s life.  Ross Sea showed itself again on its most favourable side.  A cat’s paw of south-westerly wind enabled us to use the sails, so that after a lapse of two days we were already about two hundred miles from the Barrier.  Modest as this distance may be in itself, when seen on the chart it looked quite imposing in our eyes.  It must be remembered that, with the means of transport we had employed on land, it cost us many a hard day’s march to cover a distance of two hundred geographical miles.

Nilsen had marked on the chart the limits of the belt of drift-ice during the three passages the Fram had already made.  The supposition that an available opening is always to be found in the neighbourhood of the 150th meridian appears to be confirmed.  The slight changes in the position of the channel were only caused, according to Nilsen’s experiences, by variations in the direction of the wind.  He had found that it always answered his purpose to turn and try to windward, if the pack showed signs of being close.  This mode of procedure naturally had the effect of making the course somewhat crooked, but to make up for this it had always resulted in his finding open water.  On this trip we reached the edge of the pack-ice belt three days after leaving the Barrier.  The position of the belt proved to be very nearly the same as on previous passages.  After we had held our course for some hours, however,