THE BAY OF SEALS 233 



however, we found, a few miles farther east, a bay- 

 about four miles long, and almost entirely enclosed. 

 It was still frozen over, and seals were lying on the ice 

 by the dozen. Here was food enough to give both 

 ourselves and the dogs an extra feed and to replenish 

 our supplies. We camped and went off to examine the 

 ground more closely. There were plenty of crevasses, 

 but a practicable descent was found, and in a very short 

 time three full-grown seals and a fat young one were 

 despatched. We hauled half a carcass up to the camp 

 with the Alpine rope. As we were hard at work drag- 

 ging our spoil up the steep slope, we heard Stubberud 

 sing out, "Below, there!" — and away he went like a 

 stone in a well. He had gone through the snow-bridge on 

 which we were standing, but a lucky projection stopped 

 our friend from going very far down, besides which 

 he had taken a firm round turn with the rope round his 

 wrist. It was, therefore, a comparatively easy matter to 

 get him up on the surface again. This little intermezzo 

 would probably have been avoided if we had not been 

 without our ski, but the slope was so steep and smooth 

 that we could not use them. After a few more hauls 

 we had the seal up by the tent, where a large quantity 

 of it disappeared in a surprisingly short time down the 

 throats of fifteen hungry dogs. 



The ice of the bay was furrowed by numerous leads, 

 and while the hunters were busy cutting up the seals, 

 I tried to get a sounding, but the thirty fathoms of 



VOL. II. 41 



