124 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



the fawn behind us, we remounted the valley 

 towards the interior. After a time we reached 

 a point from which we could inspect the whole 

 land as far as the spot where the river left the 

 snow-covered summits of the inland ice. The 

 northern slopes were well covered with herbage, 

 but there were no signs of pasturing reindeer. 

 We therefore returned to the spot where we 

 had left the fawn, and had a snack while waiting 

 for the sailors now climbing towards us. On 

 their arrival, I redistributed the packages and 

 sent one man back with the fawn. Accom- 

 panied by the other two sailors, we again pushed 

 onwards to a high plateau on which Swensen 

 had that morning seen a reindeer. It was 

 necessary to cross the river, which was extremely 

 wide and rapid, to reach the spot. Fortunately, 

 we discovered a snow bridge and soon were scaling 

 very steep slopes on which were many blackened 

 reindeer skulls. Swensen surmised that these 

 were the remains of a hunting expedition. He 

 assured me that in former times he had shot 

 from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 

 reindeer on each of his expeditions to Lowe 

 Sound. This reveals how rapidly deer have 

 died out, even in this relatively unfrequented 

 region of western Spitzbergen. We arrived 

 at length at the foot of a cliff which towered 



