OUR FIRST MEETING WITH THE POLAR OX. 43 



from it in various directions. With this end in view, we manu- 

 factured a double tent of sailcloth, which was sixteen feet long, 

 eight feet wide, and six feet high. 



When the tent was ready, the caravan set off, in all eleven men 

 and eight dogs. We were equipped with 'finsko,' or the winter 

 boot of the Lapp, thick rough over-socks to wear inside them, and 

 ' mudds ' or Lappish tunics of reindeer-skin. In addition to 

 these, we carried all the extra paraphernalia which goes to make 

 up the equipment of a sledge-journey. Hayes Sound was reached 

 on the afternoon of the second day after our start, and about five 

 miles outside our former camping-ground there we erected the 

 chief station which I have already mentioned. We all remained 

 there for a day, to get things in order ; the tent was pitched in a 

 hollow, which we dug out of a loose, sandy slope, and all our pro- 

 visions were conveyed up to it. 



The next day six of the men went back to the ship, each of 

 them driving his team ; while Isachsen, Schei, Bay, Fosheim, and 

 I remained behind with four teams of dogs. The work first on our 

 hands was to find a base for the mapping operations. Whilst this 

 was going on, I took my rifle and went out to try my luck ; those 

 polar oxen were still on my mind. 



I followed a sinking of the country in a north-westerly direction, 

 and had not gone very far before I saw on the other side of a 

 narrow isthmus a long fjord running parallel with Hayes Sound. 

 I ascended some higher ground in the vicinity, to get a better 

 view, and took out my glasses. Through them I discovered that 

 the connecting land between the two fjords was probably some 

 six or seven miles broad, and that from the obliquely-situated, 

 elevated ground where I was standing, an even valley sank down 

 towards the fjord, bounded on the west by high, blunt mountains 

 with steep precipices, and hillocks of small stones at their feet. 

 To the east the valley was bounded by knolls and heights of even 

 gradient. 



As I was standing there, scanning the country through my 

 glasses, I suddenly perceived two black animals far away on some 

 level ground. They looked like a couple of funeral horses, with 

 trappings which reached nearly to the ground, and though I had 



