CHAPTER XLIV. 



A JOUENEY OF PERIL. 



NEXT day we continued our journey, provided with a bag of bear's 

 meat. At Land's End we found the cairn which Baumann and the 

 mate had put up earlier in the month ; and in addition to a keg of 

 petroleum which they had left behind, found Baumann's record, 

 with a description and sketch-map jof a passage across the land to 

 ' Gaasefjord,' or ' Goose Fjord,' as we afterwards called the nearest 

 fjord east of Hvalrosfjord. 



We continued driving southwards down the sound, keeping 

 this time in the middle of it to avoid the pressure-ice, which we 

 knew lay along the east shore. We saw the tracks of sledges 

 going south, and supposed them to be those of Isachsen and 

 Hassel ; we thought the tracks were probably two or three days 

 old. We also saw the trail of numerous bears, track upon track, 

 almost all the way, but of the bears themselves not a glimpse. 



The weather was beautiful, and the going very good ; we sat 

 on the sledges the whole way, and drove at a slow trot through the 

 northern part of Hell Gate. I noticed several times that there 

 were open holes round the small hummocks we passed on the way, 

 but did not pay much attention to them ; the sun, too, was shining 

 straight in my face, so that it was not easy to keep a look-out on 

 the country in front of one. It never occurred to me but the ice 

 must be strong enough to bear, and I drove confidently on, without 

 suspecting any danger. But all at once I noticed that the ice was 

 a curious colour ; it suddenly became quite a dark blue, and the 

 thin layer of snow on the top of it was wet through we were 

 driving on quite a thin crust of snow, and might go through at any 

 moment ! 



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