CHAPTER XLY. 



BACK TO BJORNEBORG. 



FROM the tunnel down the remaining part of the valley we drove 

 without stopping, or hindrance of any kind. We went slowly, but 

 surely, through the loose snow, which increased in depth the 

 farther we went. The valley widened out at its lower extremity, 

 and together with a similar valley from the north, formed a sort of 

 frame round a large plain which extended right down to the fjord. 

 We saw numbers of tarns, and discovered later that this place in 

 summer is a regular goose district. 



We then drove on and down to Hvalrosfjord, where we dis- 

 covered that we had inadvertently laid our course a good way south 

 of the isthmus between this fjord and Gaasefjord ; we therefore 

 took a line towards the south-east, to the outer isthmus between the 

 two fjords. The entrance to the cove on the west side of the 

 isthmus was free of ice, and was swarming with sea-birds, which 

 were diving and plunging in the water, drifting backwards and 

 forwards with the current along the side of the crack. Later on 

 we drove down to the ice on the cove itself, and camped in the 

 evening on the low isthmus at Gaasefjord. 



Again that evening our tent stood on bare land ; it had not 

 snowed so heavily here as higher up in the tracts whence we came, 

 and the flat stretches of sandy soil round about were quite bare. 

 For the first time that year we saw the thermometer above freezing- 

 point ; it read as much that evening as 33 Fahr. (0*3 Cent.), but 

 there was mist, and we could see nothing of the land on the other 

 side. 



We turned out very early next day, hoping to catch the 

 Commandant of Bjorneborg in bed. It had snowed a good deal 



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