THE ANTARCTIC SEAL 211 



landed in this dangerous region, and that one man had 

 a very narrow escape of falling in with sledge and dogs. 

 I had no wish to expose myself to the risk of such 

 accidents — at any rate, while we were on familiar 

 ground. That would have been a bad beginning to my 

 first independent piece of work as a Polar explorer. 

 A day or two of fine weather to begin with would 

 enable us to follow the line originally marked out, and 

 thus keep safe ground under our feet until the ugly 

 place was passed. 



In the opening days of November the weather con- 

 ditions began to improve somewhat; in any case, there 

 was not the continual driving snow. Lindstrom asked 

 us before we left to bring up a sufficient quantity of 

 seals, to save him that work as long as possible. The 

 supply we had had during the winter was almost ex- 

 hausted; there was only a certain amount of blubber 

 left. We thought it only fair to accede to his wish, 

 as it is an awkward business to transport those heavy 

 beasts alone, especially when one has only a pack of 

 unbroken puppies to drive. We afterwards heard that 

 Lindstrom had some amusing experiences with them 

 during the time he was left alone. 



Leaving the transport out of the question, this seal- 

 hunting is a very tame sport. An old Arctic hand or 

 an Eskimo would certainly be astounded to see the 

 placid calm with which the Antarctic seal allows itself 

 to be shot and cut up. To them Antarctica would 



