212 NEW LAND. 



to turn out Isachsen to relieve him, that the great event happened. 

 A shot was fired off in the twilight, and down ran Simmons to 

 Isachsen, in the wildest excitement. ' Isachsen ! Isachsen ! I have 

 shot a seal ! ' he shouted, in Swedish, in the sleeper's ear. ' What 

 the devil do I care ? ' thought Isachsen, and turned round and 

 -went to sleep again. Simmons, who had hurried up on deck to 

 contemplate his handiwork anew, had again to go below and turn 

 Isachsen out before he was relieved, and had time to think over 

 the latter's extraordinary obtuseness with regard to great events ; 

 for it must be admitted that a botanist who has shot a seal does 

 find himself in one of the most supreme moments of his life. 



It did seem, somehow, as if these sea animals were especially 

 attracted by the ' Fram,' here in the fjord. The night that I was 

 away from the vessel, Braskerud kept watch in the engine-room, 

 and going up on deck to get a breath of air, he began to talk 

 to the watch. As they were quietly chatting, they suddenly heard 

 a blowing and breathing noise down in the water below, and were 

 very much astonished when they discovered that the sounds came 

 from a walrus. Their astonishment, however, rose to consternation 

 when they saw it beginning to climb up the side of the ship. It 

 made a very good try of it, accompanied by much blowing and 

 snorting, but the ship was too high in the side, and it fell back 

 each time. Walrus-meat was always welcome on board, it is true, 

 but such an attention as this was beyond anything we could have 

 conceived, and they stood staring at it, hardly able to believe their 

 eyes. Whether the walrus was angry, or inquisitive, or weak in 

 the head, the darkness of the night made it impossible to tell. 

 Somebody at last thought of fetching a rifle, and in due course it 

 was fired off, but where the bullets went nobody knows the 

 walrus could not be expected to tell us that ; all I know is that it 

 made no more attempts to board the ' Tram.' 



At the place where we were lying at anchor, the bottom 

 deepened rather rapidly, so the following day we moved on to 

 a little bay, further up the fjord. We had plenty of time before 

 us, for outside the storm was still raging, and we could do nothing 

 there. 



We always had a few men ashore at this time, either shooting 



