CHAPTER V. 



OUR FIRST MEETING WITH THE POLAR OX.* 



A COUPLE of days after we had entered 011 our winter quarters, 

 the mate, Hassel, Stolz, and I started on a rowing excursion, with 

 Hayes Sound as our object. 



At Cape Eutherford, we fell in with the pack-ice, and in our 

 efforts to push the boat along between the floes towards land, the 

 mate fell in and wetted himself up to his middle. As soon as the 

 boat was beached, he turned his attention to changing his clothes ; 

 but his reserve wardrobe consisted of only an Icelandic jersey and 

 a pair of stockings, and it was his nether parts which had got wet. 

 The case seemed to be a hopeless one, but Baanes is a man of 

 invention, and, nothing daunted, he proceeded to pull off certain 

 of his under garments, held the jersey upside down, and planted a 

 leg in each of the sleeves. With dry stockings and a pair of 

 ' water-skin ' trousers on his legs, outside the jersey, he was, 

 considering all things, well clad. 



These ' water-skin ' trousers are a fine article of clothing. 

 They are made of seal-skin, prepared in Eskimo fashion, and are 

 absolutely waterproof. They have one fault, however, which is 

 that when they become dry, they become at the same time so stiff 

 that they will stand upright. But for this there is a remedy. 

 When they are required for use it is only necessary to damp them, 

 roll them up, and let them lie for half an hour, when they will be 

 as moist and comfortable as ever. 



While Hassel and Stolz remained at Eutherford Bay, to shoot 



* Having shot many of these animals, and drunk the milk of the cows, without 

 ever detecting the flavour of musk from which they are supposed to derive their 

 name, I have decided to call them in this book ' polar oxen,' instead of ' musk- 

 oxen.' 



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