Voyage through the Kara Sea. 155 



what was happening, and strayed about wildly with the 

 balls whistling round them. Then off they went down 

 the side of the valley again, leaving another of their 

 number behind with a broken leg. I tore after them, 

 across the valley and up the other side, in the hope of 

 o-ettino- another shot, but rave that up and turned back 



O O O 1 



to make sure of the two wounded ones. At the bottom 

 of the valley stood one of the victims awaiting its fate. 

 It looked imploringly at me, and then, just as I was 

 going forward to shoot it, made off much quicker than I 

 could have thought it possible for an animal on three 

 legs to go. Sure of my shot, of course I missed ; and 

 now began a chase, which ended in the poor beast, 

 blocked in every other direction, rushing down towards 

 the sea and wading into a small lagoon on the shore, 

 whence I feared it miofht o-et rio'ht out into the sea. At 



O O> O 



last it got its quietus there in the water. The other one 

 w r as not far off, and a ball soon put an end to its 

 sufferings also. As I was proceeding to rip it up, 

 Henriksen and Johansen appeared ; they had just shot 

 a bear a little farther south. 



After disembowelling the reindeer, we went towards 

 the boat again, meeting Sverdrup on the way. It was 

 now well on in the morning, and as I considered that we 

 had already spent too much time here, I was impatient 

 to push northwards. Whilst Sverdrup and some of the 

 others went on board to get ready for the start, the rest 

 of us rowed south to fetch our two reindeer and our 



