i6o SPITSBERGEN chap, xi 



water rushed in waves up our legs, Spits took it into her 

 head to stop and drink, and no struggles of Garwood could 

 get her to stir. There were marks on the banks showing 

 that the waters had recently, in the hot days, been at least 

 a foot deeper, so we were to that extent lucky. The moraine 

 when reached was less toilsome than we forebode. A dry 

 and fairly smooth hollow was found leading into it, and 

 there we camped (282 feet), for farther in was no grazing 

 for the ponies. Moreover Spits had begun to go lame from 

 rheumatism, and appealed for rest. She was now so much 

 one of the family that she really spent most of her time in 

 camp, with an eye constantly on the alert for biscuits. She 

 would put her head in at the tent door, or rummage our 

 things over with her nose, trying this and that. A bundle 

 of tie-on labels attracted her special attention, and she never 

 could quite make up her mind whether it was edible or 

 no. On the inarch she co-operated with us rather than was 

 driven, and had her own ideas about the way. If she was 

 crossed, and led contrary to her judgment into a trouble- 

 some place, she would halt and look round reproachfully, 

 as though to say, " I knew it." Her own opinion was by 

 no means always right. When she made for some grey 

 streak of grass, thinking it to betoken a dry place, and lo ! 

 it was bog, no one could more emphatically assert annoy- 

 ance than she did. When hopelessly bogged she would not 

 struggle, but, remaining quite still, would look round for 

 help, and so wait till it came. Bergen at first had none of 

 these arts and graces. He w T as a mere bundle of nerves, 

 shy of everything and hard to tempt even with biscuit. He 

 came to trust some of us a little by slow degrees, but the 

 least unexpected tap or glint of metal would put him into 

 a paroxysm of terror. On the other hand, he did not lose 

 his head in the bogs, and pulled his load without fuss and 

 with much energy if everything about him was normal. 



