HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS. 265 



had acquired all in a few minutes. Our next work was ready 

 to hand, and had to be done as quickly as possible. We started 

 to drag the animals one by one from the sanguinary mass in which 

 they lay, and remove the entrails from them. 



Bay took his team down to the sledges, and drove our baggage- 

 sledge across the bay to an eventual camping-place. There he 

 left the dogs, and came back, bringing the ' Primus ' and a whet- 

 stone, with which respectively to warm and sharpen the knives 

 while the skinning was going on. As a rule, when we were 

 skinning newly killed animals, we used to warm the whetstone 

 by placing it on the animal's body ; but when the weather was so 

 still that we could burn the ' Primus,' it saved time to do so ; and 

 to-day of all days we required efficient apparatus. Unluckily we 

 had not many knives with us, so that we could not work nearly 

 so quickly as usual. 



We kept at it the whole day, and as we removed the entrails, 

 we turned the animals over with their legs under them, and piled 

 them up as close together as we could, so that they should not 

 freeze before we had skinned and disjointed them. 



It grew so dark by the time we had skinned six animals that 

 we could not see to do any more, so we let loose the dogs to revel 

 in the garbage. When they were unable to swallow another 

 mouthful we collected our things and started downwards, taking 

 with us a couple of prime bits of meat for boiling. 



Just as we arrived at the place where we expected to find the 

 sledge, I saw a herd of animals down by the crack. I wondered 

 what they could be, and at first thought they were polar oxen, but 

 their action was different. Were they bears ? No ; impossible. 

 Wolves ? No ; these animals were black ; at any rate, they looked 

 black in the darkness. Then Schei came up, and was able to 

 explain that they were Bay's dogs, which had been left behind, and 

 were patiently waiting for their turn to come. While we were - 

 pitching the tent, Bay took them up to the slaughter-ground to 

 feed. 



It was late that night before we settled into the tent, and a 

 hard day we had had of it. Standing out in - 22 Fahr. (- 30 

 Cent.), working hard at disembowelling all these large animals the 



