334 A DAY AT FRAMHEIM 



was impossible to keep one's eyes open. I took up a posi- 

 tion in lee of a snow-drift, and waited to see what would 

 happen. The dogs did not seem to be inconvenienced 

 by the change of weather; some of them lay curled up 

 in a ring, with their nose under their tail, on the snow, 

 while others were running about. One by one the men 

 came out; each had a lantern in his hand. As they 

 arrived at the place where the dogs were, each was sur- 

 rounded by his team, who followed him to the tents 

 with joyous howls. But everything did not pass off 

 peacefully; I heard I think it was in Bjaaland's tent 

 a deafening noise going on, and looked in at the door. 

 Down there, deep below the surface, they were having a 

 warm time. All the dogs were mixed up together in 

 one mass: some were biting, some shrieking, some 

 howling. In the midst of this mass of raging dogs I saw 

 a human figure swinging round, with a bunch of dog- 

 collars in one hand, while he dealt blows right and left 

 with the other, and blessed the dogs all the time. 

 I thought of my calves and withdrew. But the human 

 figure that I had seen evidently won the mastery, as the 

 noise gradually subsided and all became quiet. As each 

 man got his dogs tied up, he went over to the meat-tent 

 and took a box of cut-up seal meat, which stood on the 

 wall out of the dogs' reach. This meat had been cut up 

 earlier in the day by two men. They took it in turns, I 

 heard; two men had this duty daily. The dogs were 

 then fed, and half an hour after this was done the camp 





