160 NEW LAND. 



Schei had some little way to go before he reached his, for, instead 

 of bear-hunting, they had turned their attention to the carcase of 

 a seal, which the bears had left behind on the ice. The dogs were 

 allowed to eat as much of the bear's-meat as they could get down, 

 and we furthermore took with us a supply for three days ; leaving 

 the rest on the ice, after we had spread the skins over it to protect 

 it from the sun. Simmons and Schei were greatly elated over 

 their morning's work, for it was their first bear-shoot, but, as the 

 proverb says, 'no one shall praise the day before the sun goes 

 down on it.' 



Later in the forenoon we encamped on the east side of the 

 fjord, just opposite Stenkjasr. After a few hours' refreshing sleep 

 before beginning on our work, I went a reconnaissance up 

 the slopes, while the others prepared breakfast. I followed the 

 course of a small stream, and in the snow, near the foot of the 

 valley, I discovered some fresh tracks. The snow, it is true, was 

 as loose as scum, so that any track would be very much larger 

 than the foot which made it ; but these, I thought, could hardly be 

 the footprints of a dog, and the only other animal likely to have 

 made them was a wolf. They led up to a place where the snow 

 had been scratched aside, then made a turn, and were soon lost 

 to sight on bare land. As I was curious to see what the animal 

 could have buried, I walked up to the spot. There lay some large 

 half-digested pieces of blubber and meat, which the animal had 

 ejected, and then cached, with a view to future delectation. I 

 saw that this was not the work of a wolf, but of one of our dogs, 

 which must have got loose and come this long distance to avoid 

 being robbed by its fellows. When I got back to the tent, I 

 noticed that one of the dogs had gnawed through its trace, but 

 having accomplished its errand, had returned to its place again. 



After breakfast we started forth to our work : Schei to examine 

 the glacier and take photographs, Simmons and I to the moraine- 

 ridges, with the old coast-lines, which had been one of our happy 

 hunting-grounds of last autumn. This was a glorious time for the 

 botanist ; the vegetation here was luxuriant and far advanced, and 

 he cherished great expectations of the coast-lines of which he had 

 heard so much. 





