50 NEW LAND. 



other side appeared to be very much more inviting, we agreed that 

 Fosheim should drive across the fjord and encamp there. I would, 

 meanwhile, go up on to higher ground, and examine the country 

 on the other side of the big glacier. I took my gun with me. 

 Fosheim laughed, and said I was giving myself needless trouble, 

 ' for there was nothing to shoot there.' To tell the truth, I 

 was of the same opinion, but, on principle, I never land without 

 my gun, and I had no reason to repent of having taken it on this 

 occasion. 



I had not gone far when I came across the recent tracks of 

 a polar ox, and I followed them up, with my gun ready to fire. 

 I soon saw the animal itself, which was a large ox. My two first 

 shots seemed to have no particular effect on it; it set off full 

 gallop across the boulders, and disappeared into a small side valley. 

 I then threw down my glasses, gun-cover, and ' ski '-staff, and 

 started off after it as hard as I could go. As I was running across 

 a small bog, between some moraines, or coast-lines, or whatever 

 they were, I suddenly caught sight of the ox, up on a mound of 

 sand, where it stood glaring at me, not more than fifty paces 

 away. I fired again. The ox took it very quietly, merely going 

 away a few steps, and disappeared behind the sand-hill. I followed 

 the animal, and when I reached the spot where it had been 

 standing, saw it some seven or eight yards farther down the hillside. 

 I aimed at the head, but remembered just in time that the skull 

 would be wanted for a museum, and must not be injured, so I 

 gave it a bullet in the shoulder instead, which brought it to the 

 ground on the spot. 



As I was skinning the animal, and taking out the entrails, 

 I saw four more oxen coming straight towards me. Was I in 

 for a battle ? I knew nothing of the polar ox's temperament, 

 and did not much like the look of their horns, so I put another 

 cartridge into my gun; but when the animals had advanced to 

 within range, they suddenly turned round, and disappeared among 

 the sand-hills above. 



I then went down towards the fjord to get hold of Fosheim, 

 who, I knew, much wished to shoot a polar ox; but when I 

 had shouted to him several times without receiving an answer, 



