42 NEW LAND. 



We camped in the evening on a tongue of land where we found 

 a capital place to pitch our tent, and subsequently we made use of 

 this spot every time we came to Hayes Sound. 



The next morning we continued on our way up the sound, or 

 fjord, alongside the shore, travelling over young ice, in which we 

 saw several holes made by walrus merely by thrusting up their 

 heads. They have strong skulls, these fellows, with a strong 

 covering over them. They are quite capable of driving their heads 

 through six or eight inches of ice; a -38 Eemington bullet will 

 not penetrate the folds of skin on their necks; and I am very 

 sure that a harpoon thrown by an inexperienced hand would fail 

 to penetrate their hide. 



We encamped in the evening in the inner part of Hayes Sound, 

 beside a small river. 



The next day we went out shooting, each of us taking his own 

 line of country. I made my way up the fjord, while the other 

 two went down it, and each chose his own valley. We all three 

 met again in the evening, and discussed the events of the day in 

 the tent as soon as we had had some food. The entire bag was a 

 brace of hares, one ptarmigan and a lemming. Fosheim, however, 

 related that he had seen in the snow the fresh tracks of a herd of 

 large cloven-footed animals, and our spirits rose in proportion. 

 He did not know whether the tracks were those of reindeer or 

 polar oxen, but we came to the conclusion that they must have 

 been those of the latter. He had followed the trail the whole day, 

 but without getting a glimpse of the animals. 



Isachsen had been high up on the mountains, and had seen 

 a fjord which penetrated into the north side of the land. We 

 ought, of course, to have investigated this, but the dogs' food 

 had given out, and we were compelled to return to the ship, 

 a distance of over forty miles, and reached it the evening of 

 the same day. 



We set to work at once to equip for a longer stay in Hayes 

 Sound, so that we might be able to survey and map the various 

 unknown fjor^-branches which we believed to exist there. It was 

 our intention to make a chief station there with a store of pro- 

 visions for ourselres and the dogs, and to make sledge-excursions 



