234 THE EASTERN SLEDGE JOURNEY 



Alpine rope I had were not enough; no bottom was 

 reached. After having something to eat we went down 

 again, in order if possible to find out the depth. This 

 time we were better supplied with sounding tackle: 

 two reels of thread, a marlinspike, and our geological 

 hammer. 



First the marlinspike was sent down with the thread 

 as a line. An inquisitive lout of a seal did all it could 

 to bite through the thread, but whether this was too 

 strong or its teeth too poor, we managed after a lot of 

 trouble to coax the marlinspike up again, and the inter- 

 fering rascal, who had come up to the surface now 

 and then to take breath, got the spike of a ski-pole 

 in his thick hide. This unexpected treatment was 

 evidently not at all to his liking, and after acknow- 

 ledging it by a roar of disgust, he vanished into the 

 depths. Now we got on better. The marlinspike 

 sank and sank until it had drawn with it 130 fathoms 

 of thread. A very small piece of seaweed clung to the 

 thread as we hauled it in again; on the spike there was 

 nothing to be seen. As its weight was rather light for 

 so great a depth — a possible setting of current might 

 have carried it a little to one side — we decided to try 

 once more with the hammer, which was considerably 

 heavier, in order to check the result. The hammer, on 

 the other hand, was so heavy, that with the delicate 

 thread as a line the probability of successfully carrying 

 out the experiment seemed small, but we had to risk 



