Voyage through the Kara Sea. 147 



mate, from the crow's-nest, caught sight of reindeer. At 

 once we were all agog ; everyone wanted to go ashore, 

 and the mate was quite beside himself with the hunter's 

 fever, his eyes as big as saucers, and his hands trembling 

 as though he were drunk. Not until we w r ere in the boat 

 had we time to look seriously for the mate's reindeer. 

 We looked in vain not a living thing was to be seen in 

 any direction. Yes when we were close in shore, we at 

 last descried a large flock of geese waddling upward from 

 the beach. We were base enough to let a conjecture 

 escape us, that these were the mate's reindeer a 

 suspicion which he at first rejected with contempt. 

 Gradually, however, his confidence oozed away. But it 

 is possible to do an injustice even to a mate. The first 

 thing I saw when I sprang ashore was old reindeer 

 tracks. The mate had now the laugh on his side, ran 

 from track to track, and swore that it was reindeer he 

 had seen. 



When we got up on to the first height we saw several 

 reindeer on flat ground to the south of us ; but the wind 

 being from the north, we had to go back and make our 

 way south along the shore till we got to leeward of them. 

 The only one w r ho did not approve of this plan was the 

 mate, who was in a state of feverish eagerness to rush 

 straight at some reindeer he thought he had seen to the 

 east, which, of course, was an absolutely certain way to 

 clear the field of everyone of them. He asked and 

 received permission to remain behind with Hansen, who 



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