CHAPTER XXII. 



CAPTIVITY IN BAADSFJORD. 



IT was now clear to us that, without a land wind, which could 

 drive the drift ice ad undas, we should not reach the ' Fram ' before 

 it was strong enough for us to walk back. We therefore made up 

 our minds to two or three weeks' arrest in 'Baadsfjord' (Boat 

 Fjord), and set to work to shoot as much game as possible, in order 

 to save the provisions. We did not pitch the travelling tent, but 

 took up our quarters in the big canvas tent. 



The frost set in with a will, and we expected that the ice would 

 soon bear, but we had not reckoned with the violent tidal current, 

 which there is here, both along the coast and up the fjord. It left 

 the ice no peace, but broke it up continually every time it began to 

 form. Several times the off-shore wind swept the fjord free of 

 ice ; but it merely collected outside, where it drifted backwards 

 and forwards, sometimes east and sometimes west, and after a 

 couple of attempts to push through it, our hopes in that direction 

 died a natural death. 



All four of us then took to shooting, and we made great havoc 

 among the hares; there are no game laws to be respected in 

 these happy regions. There were not very many hares about; 

 but we beat out every hole and corner, and at last got so many 

 together that when we took our departure there was not more 

 than a brace left in the whole place. Not far above the ent 

 was a little tarn, with grass growing round it, and for a long 

 time ptarmigan were a sure find there before dawn or in the dusk 

 of the evening. It was generally Isachsen and Stolz who did 

 execution among the birds, for they were the only ones who, 

 besides rifles, had shot-guns with them. 



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