REINDEER 125 



almost five hundred feet above the Great 

 Moraine. The view was magnificent. Before 

 us extended the fjord, closed on the west by 

 the dark shore of Axel Island, which bars the 

 entrance to Lowe Sound, and which must have 

 been the earliest moraine of the huge glacier, 

 whose bed, once upon a time, was this same 

 fjord now filled with water. Surrounded by 

 its circle of mountains was the 'glacier of Micael 

 Rinders Bay, and at our feet, like a map in 

 relief, lay the far-extending range enclosing 

 Braganga Bay, displaying small, still lakes amid 

 rounded clay mounds and ice-covered flints. 

 The channel in which we had anchored the 

 preceding day connected Braganga Bay with 

 Lowe Sound. A rare and stunted plant grew 

 on the high plateau on which we stood, and 

 after a time we discovered a reindeer feeding 

 between the rocks. We could only approach 

 it by passing around behind the crest of the 

 cliff. It was a dangerous and tiresome journey 

 over treacherous shale which slipped beneath 

 our feet. Each step had to be considered. To 

 ascertain the exact position of the animal 

 Swensen raised his head above the cliff crest, 

 and found himself nose to muzzle with a big 

 reindeer which had come up to us with a trot. 

 We had not seen it, but it had scented us, and in 



