66 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Mar. 



tail of a blue fox waving in their faces would be like stopping the 

 world from going around. The komatiks (sledges) fairly leaped 

 through space. Such a sudden and unexpected rush caught us all 

 unawares; pipes, tobacco, matches, pieces of frozen meat — every- 

 thing not tied on was left lying along the trail. The fox trotted 

 along slowly at first, now and then looking back over his shoulder, 

 as if saying to himself, *T wonder if they are really after me.'^" As 

 the dogs approached, he quickened his pace a bit as if to tease them; 

 then, to show them that he could run, he turned into a bounding 

 black ball which quickly faded away to a tiny speck in the dis- 

 tance. The dogs slowed down, looked fooUsh, then turned their 

 heads to us as if to ask, "What was that?" It is said that these 

 foxes can catch Arctic hares. If so, that one will Hve for a long 

 time yet! 



From the Fosheim Peninsula we headed across Eureka 

 Sound for Skraelingodden on the morning of the 30th. 

 A heavy mist hanging low over the fiord, in combination 

 with a light northeast wind, gave us warning of an 

 approaching storm. This point marked the end of our 

 good sledging and good weather. As we rounded 

 Skraelingodden our hitherto light wind freshened to a 

 strong breeze; at forty below zero it seemed to go 

 right through us. However, plodding through ankle- 

 deep snow all the way to Schei's Island, and running 

 ahead of the dogs to increase our speed, soon warmed 

 us up. It was drifting and blowing so hard as we 

 approached the island that we could scarcely make out 

 its outline. Unable to find snow suitable for building 

 an igloo, we continued on toward the south, looking 

 for shelter. After traveling a short distance, we dis- 

 covered that there was land on both sides of us; we 

 had either entered an inlet and were in a cul-de-sac or 

 there were low-lying islands off the southern point of 

 the island which the map of Sverdrup did not show. 

 The shelving shore to the north offered no shelter what- 



