OUR FIRST MEETING WITH THE POLAR OX. 55 



Fosheim had not come back, so I cooked the supper, expecting 

 his return every moment, but he did not come. I began to grow 

 anxious about him, and to wonder what could possibly have kept 

 him out so late. At last, about ten o'clock, he turned up, and as 

 soon as we had had our supper, we began on the narration of the 

 day's experiences. Fosheim looked very incredulous, and at first 

 quite refused to swallow my story of the hare on two legs. 

 He said he had seen plenty of two-legged hares at home ' scare- 

 hare ' being our Norwegian name for a coward but he quite refused 

 to believe in the existence of one in this country. I stuck to my 

 point, however, and at last he gave in so far as to say he would 

 investigate the matter on the first opportunity, and therewith 

 changed the subject to his polar ox. 



He had found traces of it on the sands, and had followed up 

 the trail to the other side of them. Here the animal had taken to 

 some rocky ground, which was so steep that he had found great 

 difficulty in following it. Many times he had thought of giving up 

 the pursuit, but when it came to the point could not bring himself 

 to do so, and had therefore climbed on farther and farther upwards. 

 At the top of the slope he had at last caught sight of the ox 

 glaring down on him. It was standing under a perpendicular wall 

 of rock, on a boulder not much broader than itself, and looked 

 very much like a bronze animal on a pedestal. He raised his gun 

 to his cheek, but then changed his mind, thinking it better to get 

 out of the way first, in case of an accident, when the animal 

 came tumbling down from its pedestal. So he cautiously crawled 

 up a little distance to one side, and then let blaze at the ox, which 

 was killed on the spot. It fell at once over the edge of the 

 precipice, carrying with it a mass of rock and 'earth, but Fosheim, 

 who had behaved with so much caution, escaped unhurt. 



He had subsequently spent the whole evening cutting up the 

 animal, and carrying the flesh down to the ice. The ground 

 was so rough that he thought his task would never be finished. 

 With regard to the shot, it appeared that on the first day the 

 animal had received a ' mane-shot ' only a shot which brushes 

 the mane and stuns the animal, but does not kill it outright. 



On Tuesday, October 4, we decided to return to Fort 



