"May the god Odin protect us!" and, quickly adjusting the sails, he glanced at our compass, turned the prow in due northerly direction through an open channel, and our voyage had begun.( 6) (6 Hall writes, on page 288: "On the 23rd of January the two Esquimaux, accompanied by two of the seamen, went to Cape Lupton.

They reported a sea of open water extending as far as the eye could reach.") The sun was low in the horizon, as it was still the early summer.
Indeed, we had almost four months of day ahead of us before the frozen night could come on again.
Our little fishing-sloop sprang forward as if eager as ourselves for adventure.

Within thirty-six hours we were out of sight of the highest point on the coast line of Franz Josef Land.

We seemed to be in a strong current running north by northeast.

Far to the right and to the left of us were icebergs, but our little sloop bore down on the narrows and passed through channels and out into open seas--channels so narrow in places that, had our craft been other than small, we never could have gotten through.
On the third day we came to an island.