A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR. 309 



up. They could see from the tracks that the animal had been 

 bitten till it was bleeding. 



It was very cold, and a keen wind was blowing outside East 

 Cape, so that Nodtvedt, who had thrown off his reindeer-skin tunic 

 at the beginning of the chase, began to feel it ; and, as the bear had 

 already got so far away that the dogs could no longer be heard, 

 and the whole enterprise looked rather hopeless, Schei and 

 Nodtvedt made a virtue of necessity, apd turned back. The dogs 



EAST SIDE OF SYDKAPFJORD. 



also came back to them, with the exception of a puppy and one 

 of Schei's team. 



We expected the truants to turn up in the course of the 

 evening, but at eleven o'clock they had not returned, nor had 

 they appeared by Monday morning. Schei began to be anxious, 

 thinking that the bear had perhaps got hold of them, and started 

 off in quest. Bay went with him, and they left the ship early 

 in the forenoon, and were away all day. They saw nothing of 

 the dogs, but found the tracks of Sunday's chase, and saw that 



