AMONG THE DOGS 303 



same moment three of the men produced their watches, 

 and a comparison was made and entered in a book. 

 After each watch had been compared, its owner went 

 outside, taking his watch with him. I took the oppor- 

 tunity of slipping out with the last man Prestrud and 

 his chronometers were too serious for me; I wanted to 

 see what the others were about. 



There w r as plenty of life outside ; dogs' howls in every 

 key came from the tents. Some of those who had left 

 the house before us were out of sight, so they had 

 probably gone to their respective tents, and presently 

 one could see by the lights that they were in the act of 

 letting their dogs loose. How well the lighted-up tents 

 looked against the dark, star-strewn sky! Though it 

 could no longer be called dark: the little flush of dawn 

 had spread and overpowered the glow of the aurora 

 australis, which had greatly decreased since I last saw 

 it; evidently it was near its end. Now the four-footed 

 band began to swarm out, darting like rockets from the 

 tents. Here were all colours grey, black, red, brown, 

 white, and a mixture of all of them. What surprised 

 me was that they were all so small; but otherwise they 

 looked splendid. Plump and round, w r ell kept and 

 groomed, bursting with life. They instantly collected 

 into little groups of from two to five, and it was easy to 

 see that these groups consisted of intimate friends they 

 absolutely petted each other. In each of these clusters 

 there was one in particular who was made much of; all 



