Note 4 — Chapter I

It began with a pair of ski4 made by himself for use on the Frogner hills, developed in the hazardous leaps on the Huseby5 slopes, and culminated in his becoming one of Norway’s cleverest and most enduring runners on ski. It began with fishing for troutlets in the river, and ended with catching seals in the Arctic seas. It began with shooting sparrows with cannons, and ended with shooting the polar bear and walrus with tiny Krag-Jörgensen conical bullets. It began with splashing about in the cold pools of the Frogner river, and ended in having to swim for dear life amid the ice floes of the frozen ocean. Persevering and precise, enduring and yet defiant, step by step he progressed.