4O2 Chapter VII. 



This was a favourite evening amusement with some of 

 us, and the boat was fully officered with captain, mate, 

 and second mate, but had no common sailors. They 

 thought it an excellent opportunity of practising sailing 

 with a square sail ; while the rest of our fellows standing 

 on the icy shore, found it still more diverting to bombard 



J O 



the navigators with snowballs and lumps of ice. It 

 was in this same pool that we tried one day if one of 

 our boats could carry all thirteen of us at once. When 

 the dogs saw us all leave the ship to go to the pool 

 they followed us in utter bewilderment as to what 

 this unusual movement could mean ; but when we got 

 into the boat they, all of them, set to work and howled 

 in wild despair ; thinking, probably, that they would 

 never see us again. Some of them swam after us, 

 while two cunning ones, "Pan" and " Kvik," conceived 

 the brilliant idea of galloping round the pool to the 

 opposite side to meet us. A few clays afterwards I 

 was dismayed to find the pool dried up ; a hole had 

 been worn through the ice at the bottom, and all the 

 fresh water had drained out into the sea. So that 

 amusement came to an end. 



In the summer when we wanted to make an 

 excursion over the ice, in addition to such pools we 

 met with lanes in the ice in all directions, but as a 

 rule could easily cross them by jumping from one loose 

 floe to another, or leaping right across at narrow- 

 places. 



