Framheim had had the same protracted storms with heavy snowfall.  On several mornings the master of the house had had to dig his way out through the snow-wall outside the door; but during the last three fine days he had managed to clear a passage, not only to the door, but to the window as well.  Daylight came down into the room through a well nine feet deep.  This had been a tremendous piece of work; but, as already hinted, nothing can stop Lindstrom when he makes up his mind.  His stock of seals’ flesh was down to a minimum; the little there was vanished on the appearance of our ravenous dogs.  We ourselves were in no such straits; sweets were the only things in special demand.

We stayed at home one day.  After bringing up two loads of seals’ flesh, filling our empty provision cases, carrying out a number of small repairs, and checking our watches, we were again on the road on Monday the 18th.  We were not very loth to leave the house; indoor existence had become rather uncomfortable on account of constant dripping from the ceiling.  In the course of the winter a quantity of ice had formed in the loft.  As the kitchen fire was always going after our return, the temperature became high enough to melt the ice, and the water streamed down.  Lindstrom was annoyed and undertook to put a stop to it.  He disappeared into the loft, and sent down a hail of ice, bottle-straw, broken cases, and other treasures through the trap-door.  We fled before the storm and drove away.  This time we had to carry out our instructions as to the exploration of the long eastern arm of the Bay of Whales.  During the autumn several Sunday excursions had been made along this remarkable formation; but although some of these ski-runs had extended as far as twelve miles in one direction, there was no sign of the hummocks coming to an end.  These great disturbances of the ice-mass must have a cause, and the only conceivable one was that the subjacent land had brought about this disruption of the surface.  For immediately to the south there was undoubtedly land, as there the surface rose somewhat rapidly to a height of 1,000 feet; but it was covered with snow.  There was a possibility that the rock might project among the evidences of heavy pressure at the foot of this slope; and with this possibility in view we made a five days’ trip, following the great fissure, or “bay,” as we generally called it, right up to its head, twenty-three geographical miles to the east of our winter-quarters.

Although we came across no bare rock, and in that respect the journey was a disappointment, it was nevertheless very interesting to observe the effects of the mighty forces that had here been at work, the disruption of the solid ice-sheath by the still more solid rock.