ACROSS ELLESMERE LAND. 137 



exception of a single one out on the point, where, many years 

 ago, presumably, an ox had been, and, of course, the bear-track 

 which we had followed at the beginning of our ascent. I received 

 the impression, however, that bears not infrequently do wander in 

 from Jones Sound to the west coast of Ellesmere Land, and that 

 then they follow the route we had come from Nbrdfjord to ' Bays 

 Fjord,' for so we named the fjord on whose shore we halted. 



Meanwhile, it was not only bears which had known and used 

 our overland route. In several places we saw traces of Eskimo 

 habitation, such as rings of stone marking the sites of their tents, 

 both at the spot where we eventually got down into the big canon, 

 west of the gorge with the rapids, and also at the place where we 

 deposited the dog-food. 



As shooting was a complete failure, and we could get no food 

 for the dogs, there was nothing for it but to return to the tent. 

 We ran rather than walked on our return trip. We no longer 

 had the wind ' on our backs,' but in our teeth, and a gale with 

 some eight or ten degrees below zero is no joke. It was comfortable 

 indeed to get inside the tent and the bags that evening. 



The next day we tramped back to the sledges with our bundles 

 on our backs. On our arrival the dogs were treated to three 

 rations each, for they had not tasted food for three days and nights. 

 They were very impatient, however, to get east again ; they seemed 

 to know by instinct that we were driving back to our big meat- 

 depot, and went at quite a respectable pace. We had the wind 

 behind us, and after we had passed the watershed, the pace down- 

 ward became terrific. The snow flew up like smoke in our wake, 

 and the dogs set a course straight on the rock where the meat was 

 lying, without the slightest regard to the irregularities of the 

 country. Exactly what I expected took place : we stuck fast in a 

 steep sand-hill, a little way below the depot. 



I walked on to find a place where we could pitch the tent. 

 When I had gone a couple of hundred yards I saw Bay following 

 me, and stopped for him to catch me up. As I was standing there 

 I suddenly became aware of a cloud of snow rolling towards us at 

 great speed, from the direction whence \\ 7 e had come. What in 

 the world could it be ? A cloud of snow there ? There must be 



