332 NEW LAND. 



former trip, when we had done so much running. I had hoped that 

 as soon as we began with regular exercise again the feeling would 

 pass off; but, instead of that, it only grew worse. Peder, too, 

 was so ' remarkably stiff' that, as he expressed it, it was the ' very 

 devil ; ' but he had it in rather a different way, and I thought he 

 would be better long before we were, and had not very much 

 sympathy for him. 



After our rest, we followed the ice-foot for a while, until we 

 drove down on to the ice again in Moskusfjord, where we made a 

 big curve outside the pressure-ice, and were finally able to take a 

 line for Stormkap. 



Peder's team, which was being driven for the first time this 

 year, was quite out of training, and during the afternoon he began 

 to fall behind. I pulled up and waited for him every now and 

 then, and on the whole the caravan kept very well together until 

 we reached the ice-foot at Stormkap, where, after the immense 

 upheaval that had taken place, it was almost impossible to drive 

 with our heavy loads. 



After I had been driving a little while up on the ice-foot, I saw 

 that I was some hundred yards ahead of the others, and so stopped 

 for them to catch me up. This time it was Fosheim who was 

 behind. Peder came limping up to me, calling, ' Fosheim is so 

 damned stiff he can hardly stand ! ' and burst out into roars 

 of laughter, as was his, wont on such occasions. When he had 

 got his breath again, he added, ' But it's hard luck on old Erik all 

 the same ! ' 



At Stormkap we saw such an inviting camping-ground that we 

 could not bring ourselves to pass it by. It was true that we had 

 arranged to meet the others at Bjorneborg that evening, but with 

 our thirty-nine miles behind us that was a good day's march ! we 

 found it easy to silence our consciences. Besides, it was only a short 

 hour's drive to Bjorneborg, and if we started at seven the next 

 morning we should be there before the Bjb'rneborgers had their boots 

 on, and should still have the whole day in which to arrange the 

 victualling and apportioning of what had to be apportioned between 

 the different parties. Another reason for stopping was that I was 

 reluctant to force the dogs so early on the journey, a proceeding 



