274 NEW LAND. 



the former was situated right under his head, as iu a shark. 

 ' Gamlen' had always been a murderer; equally too he had always 

 eaten his friends and acquaintances, but to thrash him for his 

 sins was of no use. The episode was a serious one for us, for 

 ' Underbete ' was a splendid draught animal. We gave expression 

 to our sorrow at the murder by skinning the deceased, and taking 

 his skin back with us. 



After Isachsen and Bay had gone we brought Schei's sledge 

 into the boat-house, and put new tin plates on the runners. After 

 supper, Schei and Fosheim confessed, that before leaving the 

 vessel, they had provided themselves with the wherewithal to 

 keep my birthday, in the shape of some cigars, and a small bottle 

 of spirits of wine ! They proposed, that if the leader of the 

 expedition had no objection, his birthday should be kept on the 

 thirtieth, while we had a roof over our heads, instead of on the 

 thirty-first, when we should probably be in the travelling tent. The 

 proposal was of course accepted, and we set to work at once to make 

 toddy with the spirits of wine. A poem too had been composed in 

 my honour. Fosheim was the bard on this occasion, and possibly 

 Schei may have had something to do with the auttiorship; I 

 imagine they had written it in the tent during my absences. 

 They made so much of the hero of the day, that he felt quite 

 bashful. But a birthday of the kind may be very enjoyable 

 once in a way. We had an extremely pleasant evening, and 

 sat up till nearly eleven, at least a couple of hours longer than 

 usual. 



The weather had been brilliant the whole day; we had not 

 had such fine weather since we came to Jones Sound ; but it was 

 very cold, more than twenty degrees below zero. 



On October 31 we drove east, taking advantage of Isachsen's 

 and Hassel's tracks, and the sledges ran so easily in them, that 

 we reached almost half-way to the ship in the one day. 



About midday we saw the sun for the last time that year, 

 and thus we began our second winter night on this voyage. Later 

 in the afternoon there was a change in the weather ; it came over 

 thick and began to snow, and snow continued to fall the whole of 

 that night and the following morning. All this loose snow, of 



