OUR FIRST MEETING WITH THE POLAR OX. 53 



coffee, with milk from the cow I had shot. This milk was very 

 rich, it resembled the milk of the reindeer, and tasted like thin 

 cream, without the least flavour of musk. 



We did not finish our task until ten o'clock, and we then went 

 back to the tent, where we set to work at once to make ' Juliana 

 soup,' as hungry as the hunters we were. The cooking-pot was 

 an eight-man one, but, all the same, we crammed it full of meat, 

 with plenty of fat in addition. 



It was the most comfortable evening in the tent we had yet 

 had, a regular hunter's evening. Without was the moonlight 

 shining over a fairy landscape, full of big game, which never yet 

 had heard the sound of a shot: within were we, well satisfied 

 after our good supper, puffing at our pipes, a cup of coffee by our 

 side, and in eager conversation until far into the night. What 

 more could the heart of a hunter desire ? 



Next morning Fosheim went up to skin his ox, as we had not 

 had time to see to it the previous evening. I went, too ; to find 

 my glasses, gun-cover, and ' ski '-staff, which I had shed when I 

 gave chase to the ox. I looked for them till far on in the day 

 without success, but they were found by Fosheim during the 

 course of the afternoon. 



The following day we made a trip round the fjord, under the 

 glacier, and we then realized what a splendid game-country 

 we had unexpectedly hit on. The vegetation was incredibly 

 luxuriant, and the whole place swarmed with big fat hares, of 

 which we shot a leash. 



After we had crossed the sands between the fjord and the 

 glacier, and were ascending the slopes on the other side, we came 

 across the tracks of two oxen. It was already growing dusk, and 

 as it would be impossible to see the animals at more than a couple 

 of hundred yards' distance, even if we came across them, we 

 agreed that Fosheim should follow the tracks, and I go down 

 again to the level ground by the sands, in order to keep a look- 

 out, and signal to him if necessary. We had separated, and 

 gone a little way with this intention, when suddenly I caught 

 sight of both the animals, which were making away across a 

 small crag not far off. I immediately signalled to Fosheim, and 



