p. 40, Oct 1, 1893, Sunday and their first day of rest: In the forenoon we had some sacred music on the organ, and read books from our well-stocked library.
p. 42, after a bear was shot: No trace of food could be found in its stomach….The only thing we found in the stomach was a piece of brown paper, which it must have swallowed just before, as we could plainly distinguish the name of a Norwegian firm, ‘Lütken & Moe,’ stamped on the paper.
p. 73, Christmas 1893: Our paper, Framsjaa, appeared this week—a specially well-filled number, including artist sketches of “The Norse Boy in Time of Peace” and in “Time of War”
p. 74, no religious service of any kind on board.
p. 75: Maps were brought out, and the history of former expeditions was read and discussed. We lived through all their experiences, but at the same time we knew we were far better off than any other Arctic exploration, and dearly bought were the experiences upon which Nansen built….
p. 85: Our library was in great request; on more than one occasion it had been a great comfort to us. Books about earlier Arctic expeditions were those read at first. A number of volumes of English illustrated papers were great favourites; we enjoyed the pictures almost as children do.
p. 93, re Norwegian Independence Day, May 17, 1894: Forward! Forward, Norwegians! What we do, we do for Norway!
p. 99, Midsummer’s Day, during drift of the Fram: Our life was somewhat monotonous, one day was exactly like the other. There was the same kind of work at the same time, and the same recreations at the same hours. The latter consisted of cards and reading, but we were beginning to get tired of cards. We were, however, very comfortable….
p. 111, late August. In the evening we either played cards or searched the treasures of our library. Amundsen would never touch cards—‘They are the devil’s playthings,’ he used to say.
p. 124, Christmas 1894: We read the same Christmas numbers, and looked at the same illustrated books as we had brought out from the library the last Christmas.
p. 135, In talking about the tensions of 13 people in close quarters adrift on the ice: One’s spirits were apt to become depressed now and then, and one easily became cantankerous and irritable. It was a capital thing, however, that we could have recourse to the library when we were out of sorts.
[Shortly afterwards, Nansen and Johansen left the ship to walk Polewards, and there is scarcely a mention of reading after that until
p. 282 where Johansen contrasts their winter hut to that of the cabin of Jackson (their rescuer), much farther south, that he would later learn about.]: They were cozy and comfortable and did not trouble themselves much about the Arctic winter. They had also a good library, a thing we were very much in want of. We had only a nautical almanack, in which we could read all about the Royal Family and the treatment of the apparently drowned, and I was longing so much for the last volume of Heyses’ novel, which I had not managed to get through aboard the Fram.
p. 306, Johansen transcribes from the journal a poem about spring—it may have been written by him but it isn’t clear.
p. 321, Nansen and Johanson spent several days after their rescue with Jackson at Elmwood on Cape Flora: The shelves on the walls up the roof were filled with books.
p. 327: I began to learn English, Nansen and Dr. Koettlitz kindly assisting me in my studies. The latter brought out a number of illustrated English comic papers, and was indefatigable in translating the text into German for me. Blomkvist had an old English-Swedish dictionary, which helped me a good deal, and in the library I found all Cooper’s novels, which I knew well, having read them in Norwegian.
[The book betrays only very moderately the depressions that Johansen suffered, and which probably contributed to his suicide later.]