TOWARDS CAPE SOUTH-WEST. 361 



spirits up to a higher pitch than on most ordinary days ; but for 

 the person chiefly concerned there often lurks behind a good deal 

 of longing and sadness, and just because one sees so much more 

 clearly the faces that are dear to one, the feeling grows worse 

 instead of better. If only one could be at home for a little while, 

 take them by the hand, and hear a few words ! But no, such 

 thoughts must be thrust aside; we had much to do before we 

 reached as far as that ! 



No bear came in the course of the night, so we had to start 

 driving again in snow that was the same sluggish going as before. 

 We went very slowly, but we all lent a hand at the hauling and 

 made a certain amount of progress. We saw no bears they 

 seemed to have quite disappeared and although we scanned and 

 scanned in our anxiety, we did not see a single track, or the 

 slightest trace of a bear. We camped in the evening, after having 

 dragged ourselves eight miles or so through snow that only grew 

 worse the farther west we went. 



On April 2, at our usual hour, we continued on our weary 

 way north-westward. There was something very remarkable about 

 the black wall of rock on which we were steering ; a sort of looming 

 made it appear sometimes only a couple of miles away, and yet after 

 we had toiled and toiled for hours, we did not seem to have come 

 a step nearer. 



We had been so long talking and thinking about bears without 

 seeing a sign of any, that when one really came walking towards 

 us we could hardly believe our eyes. But this was a more wary 

 fellow than our last, for he very soon changed his direction and 

 made off northward. I then let go the dogs, which had just winded 

 it, and I knew at once that the bear was ours. Fosheim was 

 despatched to shoot it, while we unloaded his sledge so that 

 it might be in readiness in case the animal should get so far away 

 that he would be unable to stamp after it through all the loose 

 snow. In our haste in throwing the things off the sledge, we were 

 so unfortunate as to break one of the loose over-runners which 

 was lashed to the top of it. The dogs, in their excitement, 

 dragged the sledges close together, and then merged into a single 

 pack, and of course fell to fighting and making a horrible 



