SLEDGE-JOURNEYS ASHORE AND AFLOAT. 189 



valley, but the weather was too bad for small game, and the seals 

 preferred their own element. The net result of my tramp, there- 

 fore, was that the next day my eyes were worse than Bay's, and 

 as the weather was as bad as ever, we did not drive on before 

 Sunday, July 16. 



Then we had beautiful sunshine, but bad ice, and made little 

 progress. After driving for three hours, we saw two men with 

 dog-teams coming towards us through Hayes Sound, and we soon 

 made out that they were Baumann and Hassel looking for us. 

 They felt sure we had been hindered by the bad condition of the 

 ice, and had therefore brought the ' pram ' with them, so that they 

 could row if necessary. They had shot a bearded seal in the 

 morning, and had brought the best bits of its flesh with them. 

 They now proceeded to feast us with delicate seal-steaks, with 

 which we had a dram of brandy, and I cannot deny that the dram 

 was good beyond description, for we had been wading in ice-water 

 all day. 



After lunch we continued eastward, and our advance gradually 

 became so much easier that after a time we could sit up on the 

 loads. A little east of Cape Eutherford Baumann and Hassel 

 stopped for the night to capture seals, and so we stayed too, to 

 take part in the sport. 



But the weather suddenly changed again ; dark, stormy clouds 

 came up from the south, and the few seals we saw on the ice 

 vanished before we came within range. We heard the bellowing 

 and hubbub of some walrus far out in the lanes noisy beggars, 

 these but saw none of them, for no sooner were we near the lane 

 where we had just heard them than they were blowing and snorting 

 away in another. We had to give it all up in despair, and go back 

 to the camp. 



When we reached Bice Strait next day, we found the ' Fram ' 

 afloat, and the greater part of the harbour free of ice ; most of it 

 having been driven out by the stiff breeze during the night. 



Schei and Simmons had returned a week earlier, and Schei, 

 with Isachsen and Peder, had at once gone out in the strait to 

 take soundings and samples of sea-water. They came back the 

 following day, and told us that the last gale had begun to break up 



