130 NEW LAND. 



them. We watched them for some time, partly through the spy- 

 hole in the wall of the tent, and partly with the glasses outside the 

 tent-door. They advanced very slowly. Now came Bay's turn to 

 go to sleep, and while he was sitting looking at the herd through 

 the crack in the canvas, off he went. This, naturally, made me 

 think that I was very wide awake, and I managed to keep an eye 

 on the oxen for an hour, until I suddenly discovered a herd of 

 four or five animals up on some projecting rocks a little way from 

 the camp. They stopped to gaze for a moment at the canvas of 

 the tent, which was flapping in the stiff breeze, but as they could 

 not make out what sort of an evil beast it was, they suddenly 

 took flight up towards the others, and immediately the whole herd 

 formed up into square against the tent. Thus they stood for 

 some time, snorting and sniffing the air, but without moving 

 from the spot. As the monster, meanwhile, showed no signs 

 of attacking them, the square was eventually dissolved, the 

 animals scattered, and began to graze as before and more I do 

 not remember, . . . 



The next day we went up to the slaughter-ground, fetched the 

 dogs, which were lying about looking very lazy and as round as 

 balloons, and got under way to drive westward. 



Four or five miles farther west, by some tarns, we reached the 

 watershed. There we saw, far away on the horizon, a chain of 

 mountains which we had already faintly seen from the place of 

 slaughter. It was a true Alpine landscape, with sharp crags and 

 snow-covered peaks. We received a decided impression that along 

 this chain of mountains a deep fjord cut into the land. 



The snow was now irreproachable, except, perhaps, that there 

 was too little of it ; but the vegetation was abundant, and the 

 sledges ran as well over the moss- and grass-grown plains as on the 

 snow. Our hopes of soon reaching the before-mentioned range 

 of mountains were, therefore, well founded, but suddenly we were 

 stopped by an impassable canon running due west, which hindered 

 all farther progress. Although our tent was not very strong, 

 and there was no lee up there from the stiff breeze which was 

 blowing, we decided to camp, and after that inspect the country. 



The river fell in a steep waterfall into the canon. We made an 



