OUR FIRST MEETING WITH THE POLAR OX. 57 



from the ship to fetch the meat, so we agreed that Fosheim 

 should go up into the mountains, to see if the country were 

 better there, whilst I went on direct to Fort Juliana. On the way 

 there I was lucky enough to shoot another very fine ox, and had 

 the satisfaction of arriving back with the certainty of having a 

 considerable quantity of fresh meat for the winter ; for on a due 

 supply of this commodity the health of the crew, and therefore the 

 fate of the expedition, was in a great measure dependent. 



At Fort Juliana, I found Bay all alone; Isachsen and Schei 

 having driven up the fjord on a surveying excursion. Bay was 

 to have gone with them, but had hurt his knee, which made it 

 difficult for him to walk. I found that he had been living on 

 only biscuit and butter for several days, with nothing to drink 

 but a little melted ice. Isachsen and Schei had taken the 

 ' Primus ' with them, so that he could not cook any food. They 

 had had the forethought to melt some ice for him before their 

 departure, and this he had kept in a tin box rolled up in his 

 reindeer-skin tunic, so that it should not freeze ; but it was nearly 

 exhausted on my arrival, and some of it was frozen. The others 

 had also taken with them the big sleeping-bag belonging to the 

 tent, while Fosheim had mine. 



I set to work at once and made a fire with paraffin, moss, and 

 small bits of wood, and hunger and thirst were soon satisfied. 

 Then we drew the fur coat over us, and were as warm and com- 

 fortable as possible. Isachsen and Schei, we thought, were having 

 a much worse time, for no travelling-tent had been brought for 

 them from the ship, and the nights are cold up north at this time 

 of year, even in a sleeping-bag. 



The following day, Friday, October 6, the weather was un- 

 usually clear. In the afternoon, just as Bay was grinding the 

 coffee and I was playing cook with paraffin and bits of wood in 

 a tin pan, Bay caught sight of a sledge, with two men on it, 

 driving up the fjord. Out came the glasses at once, and we soon 

 made out two skin-clad men seated on an Eskimo sledge, 

 drawn by eight dogs. It appeared at first as if they meant to 

 drive farther up the fjord, but suddenly they made a turn ; they 

 had probably caught sight of us. Who could it be ? 



