336 NEW LAND. 



This time we were not obliged to drive for long on the sea-ice, 

 but were soon able to cross the crack again ; still, it was quite long 

 enough for us, with our heavy loads, and all the pressed-up young 

 ice standing aslant in all directions. Nor was it easy to bring the 

 heavily loaded sledges up on to the ice-foot again, but we had with 

 us in our equipment all the implements necessary for cutting a 

 way, such as ice-axes, spades, and a big axe, and with a gang of 

 workmen as good as those I had at my disposal it was not long 

 before we had made ourselves a way. 



Progress along the ice-foot was not as bad as it might have 

 been. We had, of course, to put in a good deal of work here and 

 there ; but on the whole we managed to push on without often 

 resorting to the implements. We found the stones, however, with 

 which the ice was often strewn, a great trouble to us, as, if we 

 were not extremely careful in avoiding them, the brittle German- 

 silver on the runners suffered very much ; and, in spite of the 

 greatest watchfulness, it is an easy matter to scrape against a stone 

 when the dogs are as fresh and the pace as hot as on that day. 



Across the mouth of the first fjord, which we afterwards named 

 ' Gaasefjord,' or Goose Fjord, we drove in a long curve inwards, 

 and at a tremendous pace ; but we had another struggle with the 

 ice when we were rounding the next foreland, and our exertions 

 continued unremittingly until we reached the fjord west of it. 

 We drove at great speed on the even fjord-ice, and were soon far 

 enough up the fjord to set our course for the outermost headland 

 on the western side. 



As we were beginning to near land I became aware of a black 

 speck away on the ice, just on the boundary between the fjord- and 

 pressure-ice. This at first I took to be discoloured ice, supposing 

 that if it were walrus we should, in weather as cold as this, see 

 the steam rising from them, and therefore thought no more of the 

 matter. But the dogs soon got wind of something, and began to 

 increase their pace, and I then understood that this was really more 

 than a lump of dirty ice, and was, in fact, a heap of walrus. To 

 stop the dogs now was impossible, unless by overturning the load, 

 which I accordingly did, telling Fosheim to go on and shoot a few 

 walrus. The mate and Isachsen wished to go too, so all three 



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