196 



NEW LAND. 



of the island. We found traces in the sand of a polar ox, but they 

 may have been several years old. Despite our first-rate binoculars, 

 we did not discover more than a single walrus ; but how to get 

 near it, when the frost during the night had formed a layer of 

 horrible 'shell-ice,' which crackled as we rowed through it, we 

 knew not. To get within proper range was impossible; but of 

 course we tried our luck, and the walrus got a charge of the right 

 sort, which sent it floating to the edge of the ice, where, to our dis- 

 appointment, it sank. 



THE SLAUGHTER-GROUND, LOOKING EASTWARD. (See p. 138.) 



As I did not wish to be long absent from the vessel at this time 

 of year, when it was a matter of watching for the first opportunity 

 to get off, I decided not to go farther up the fjords, but to return on 

 board. That there had been walrus not very far off we had 

 exasperating proof of on our way home. We were ashore, cooking 

 some food, when suddenly we saw a whole herd swimming along 

 shore on their way north under our very noses, and just as if they 

 were doing it on purpose. They were going at such a pace that 

 they sent the water up in spray around them, and there was conse- 

 quently no question of catching them up. 



