CHAPTER XXVII. 



HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS. 



NEXT morning the weather was clear ; we found a passably 

 good route under land, and about half-past ten in the forenoon 

 encamped near the river at the head of the fjord. We swallowed 

 some coffee and bread and butter as fast as we could, and set off 

 shooting; Bay and Schei through the big valley running due 

 south, Fosheim and I up the valley to the west. 



We had not gone far from the tent before we discovered the 

 fresh trail of polar oxen. In our joy at this we set off full speed, 

 following the tracks up the valley as well as we were able to do so. 

 About five miles from the fjord the valley divided into two 

 arms, one of which ran in a south-westerly, and the other in a 

 northerly direction. The tracks led south-west, and we followed 

 them until a high wind from the north set in, with driving snow, 

 so that we could not see a hand's-breadth in front of us. We 

 then soon lost the trail, and as it was hopeless to think of shooting 

 anything that day, we turned back to the tent. We returned 

 along the other side of the valley, and saw numerous tracks of 

 polar cattle in the clay and sand in places where the ground was 

 free of snow. 



We reached the tent before the others were back, and therefore 

 concluded that they had had better sport than ourselves ; but as it 

 was impossible to know this for certain, I began for safety's sake 

 to cook some food we decided on bear steaks. No sooner were 

 they frying hard than we heard steps outside, and though, of 

 course, I very much wanted to call out and ask what sort of sport 

 Bay and Schei had had, I refrained, as according to our canons it 

 was not the correct thing to ask questions before the returning 



256 



