TRAPPERS 47 



At the moment of purchase the animals were 

 in a fearful condition, having lost their winter 

 fur, and being half grey. Further, the stench 

 issuing from their cage almost choked one. 

 One would have thought it impossible for any 

 living thing to survive such an atmosphere. 



On my way back to the ship I came across 

 a large anchor and chain on the shore. It 

 appeared that when the hunters arrived at the 

 island in July, they had contemplated dragging 

 their vessel ashore. Happily for them the 

 chain had broken. For, had their efforts 

 succeeded, their vessel would most surely have 

 been smashed to splinters by the huge ice-blocks 

 cast high up the beach during the winter gales. 

 They had finally anchored their barque in a 

 creek at Sabine Island, where Koldewey's 

 Germania wintered in 1870. As this little 

 bay is open only to the south, the vessel was 

 completely sheltered, and waited only the 

 breaking up of the bay ice to gain the open sea 

 again. Each week the men visited the bay and 

 inspected the ice, so that at the first possible 

 moment the ship might be swung free. The 

 neglect of such an opportunity might have 

 involved the imprisonment of the trappers 

 during a second winter. 



Our guide grumbled constantly at the result 



