AVALANCHES 57 



roar upon roar, met our ears. Now it was a shot from 

 Mount Nansen, now from one of the others; we could 

 see the clouds of snow rise high into the air. It was 

 evident that these mountains were throwing off their 

 winter mantles and putting on a more spring-like garb 



We came at a tearing pace down to the tent, where 

 our companions had everything in most perfect order. 

 The dogs lay snoring in the heat of the sun, and hardly 

 condescended to move when we came scudding in among 

 them. Inside the tent a regular tropical heat prevailed ; 

 the sun was shining directly on to the red cloth and 

 warming it. The Primus hummed and hissed, and the 

 pemmican-pot bubbled and spurted. We desired nothing 

 better in the world than to get in, fling ourselves down, 

 eat, and drink. The news we brought was no trifling 

 matter — the plateau to-morrow. It sounded almost too 

 good to be true ; we had reckoned that it would take us 

 ten days to get up, and now we should do it in four. In 

 this way we saved a great deal of dog food, as we should 

 be able to slaughter the superfluous animals six days 

 earlier than we had calculated. It was quite a little 

 feast that evening in the tent; not that we had any 

 more to eat than usual — we could not allow ourselves 

 that — but the thought of the fresh dog cutlets that 

 awaited us when we got to the top made our mouths 

 water. In course of time we had so habituated 

 ourselves to the idea of the approaching slaughter that 

 this event did not appear to us so horrible as it would 



VOL. II. 30 



