Voyage through the Kara Sea. 153 



our ears the reindeer must come very soon and our 

 eyes wandered incessantly back and forwards along the 

 slope on the other side of the valley. But no reindeer 

 came, and soon we were having a struggle to keep our 

 eyes open and our heads up we had not had much sleep 

 the last few days. They must be coming ! We shook 

 ourselves awake, and gave another look along the bank, 

 till again the eyes softly closed and the heads began to 

 nod, while the chill wind blew through our w r et clothes, 

 and I shivered with cold. This sort of thing went on for 

 an hour or two, until the sport began to pall on me, and 

 I scrambled from my shelter along towards Sverdrup, 

 who w T as enjoying it about as much as I was. We 

 climbed the slope on the other side of the valley, and 

 were hardly at the top before we saw the horns of six 

 splendid reindeer on a height in front of us. They were 

 restless, scenting westward, trotting round in a circle, 

 and then sniffing again. They could not have noticed 

 us as yet, as the wind was blowing at right angles to the 

 line between them and us. We stood a lono- time 



o> 



watching their manoeuvres, and waiting their choice of a 

 direction, but they had apparently great difficulty in 

 making it. At last off they swung south and east, and 

 off we went south-east as hard as we could P~O, to eet 



o o 



across their course before they got scent of us. Sverdrup 

 had got w r ell ahead, and I saw him rushing across a flat 

 piece of ground presently he would be at the right place 

 to meet them. I stopped, to be in readiness to cut them 



