CHAPTER III. 



IN FOULKE FJORD. 



FOULKE FJOKD is known to be particularly interesting both as 

 regards its botany and its zoology. Kane and Hayes state that 

 it is also a good place for sea-birds, walrus, and reindeer. We 

 therefore determined to go round that way, though we met a great 

 deal of ice drifting southwards at a good rate in the fresh wind. 



At the mouth of the fjord a number of hummocks had been 

 heaped up at low-water, and they now rested on the bottom, giving 

 from a distance the impression that the fjord was blocked, and it 

 was not until we were close in that we discovered the numerous 

 channels that cut through them in all directions. 



Being an old Arctic voyager, Peder Hendriksen was deputed to 

 keep a look-out from the crow's-nest with the big telescope. When 

 we had got a little way up, he shouted to us that he could see a 

 number of reindeer on shore. The rejoicing on deck was great at 

 this, especially among those who had not been reindeer-shooting 

 before. A little while after, Hendriksen called down that there 

 were no bucks, but only does. Well, we thought, that did not 

 matter. We sounded our way to an anchoring-place, and, with as 

 much speed as possible, lowered the boat and set off. It was 

 already late in the day. Baumann, Peder, Isachsen, and Bay 

 went to capture walrus for the dogs, while Fosheim and I started 

 to shoot reindeer on the north side of the fjord, where Peder had 

 seen the large herd. The scientific men also went off, each in 

 a different direction, to make the most of our short stay. They 

 did good work on land that night, and like the rest of us, did not 

 return until well on into the morning. 



When Fosheim and I had got up so far that we might have 

 expected to catch a glimpse of Peder's large herd of reindeer, 



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