432 NEW LAND. 



wolf, and there was consequently no tangible result from the 

 episode. 



The tracks we had seen in the northern part of Hell Gate were 

 those of Schei and Peder, but Isachsen and Hassel were still north. 

 My party, therefore, was not the last, but the middle one to come 

 to Bjorneborg from the north. 



We now asked Bay to tell us his experiences ; but he insisted 

 on first hearing ours; since Schei and Peder had had so much 

 to tell we must have still more. He certainly had us there. We 

 then said, what was perfectly true, that, although we had ex- 

 perienced a great deal, only one bear and one hare had been 

 killed, the latter being shot by Fosheim at the northernmost 

 point we had reached. These two animals were the only living 

 things we had seen the whole of our long journey. 



As is often the case when people speak the truth, we were 

 not believed. Bay, with superior knowledge of human nature, 

 maintained that we were trying in vain to make a fool of a wise 

 man. When at last he was constrained to believe us, he began, 

 at our request, to relate his own experiences, an account of which 

 is contained in the following chapter. 



