"Father!" I fairly gasped, "the water, the water; it is fresh!" "What, Olaf ?" exclaimed my father, glancing hastily around.

"Surely you are mistaken.

There is no land.

You are going mad." "But taste it!" I cried.
And thus we made the discovery that the water was indeed fresh, absolutely so, without the least briny taste or even the suspicion of a salty flavor.
We forthwith filled our two remaining water-casks, and my father declared it was a heavenly dispensation of mercy from the gods Odin and Thor.
We were almost beside ourselves with joy, but hunger bade us end our enforced fast.

Now that we had found fresh water in the open sea, what might we not expect in this strange latitude where ship had never before sailed and the splash of an oar had never been heard?
(11) (11 In vol.I, page 196, Nansen writes: "It is a peculiar phenomenon,--this dead water.