i62 SPITSBERGEN chap xi 



cess went slowly forward, and we thought that after a feed 

 of oats the two might be spared together to go cadging 

 around for food on the hillside. They were accordingly 

 led away and turned loose. What was our surprise, an 

 hour after we had gone to sleep, to find them both come 

 stumbling over the tent ropes, Bergen leading the way t 

 They preferred our company and occasional plants on the 

 moraine to anything the boggy hillside yielded. The morn- 

 ing found them close to camp, and almost warm in their 

 greeting when the hour for harnessing came. 



"The morning," I write, the result of habit; it was really 

 the late afternoon, for we did not actually leave camp till 

 7.30 P.M., and then not for a peak, but to return down 

 Turnback Valley to the Sassendal. The cause of this change 

 of plan was, of course, the weather, which was so densely 

 cloudy, that to ascend for a view was mere fatuity. Further 

 reflection confirmed the opinion formed at supper, and we 

 unanimously agreed that our right course was to continue 

 the ascent of the Sassendal as long as possible, and to take 

 the last considerable side valley that headed off in the Agardh 

 Bay direction. In this the event proved our justification. 



We vowed to make as long a march of it as possible, and 

 to find our pass before camping, for we were all at last in as 

 good training as a man can be in Spitsbergen, with rather in- 

 different and insufficient food, continual wettings, and a life 

 in the open air indeed, but in an air that depresses rather 

 than stimulates, and is wholly different from the bright 

 quickening atmosphere elsewhere associated with snow- 

 mountain regions. The ponies, too, were in better lasting 

 condition, and Spits's lameness had almost gone. It soon 

 became apparent that our wadings were not ended, indeed 

 we had this day more streams to ford than ever. If they 

 were not so wide as others we had crossed, some of them 

 were quite as deep, so that all of us were wet above the 



