SCHEI'S NARRATIVE. 



409 



the right by the open sea. On the other side of this, I saw, that 

 day, King Oscar Land : northward, with rounded mountains and 

 broad valleys issuing towards a narrow expanse of level country ; 

 southward, a high undivided plateau ending in inaccessible 

 declivities, and intersected by steep gaps, with great drifts in them, 

 which threatened to fall at any moment into the sea far below. 

 Northward, land and ice, white and again white, heightened by the 

 blue shadows of the valley ; southward, black unbroken mountain 



PEDEU WITH SCHEI S DOGS. 



walls like giant dams, which stemmed the tide of the snow from 

 the sea beneath. 



' As I turned away from this imposing panorama, and happened 

 to glance inland, I again saw a dark speck on a little knoll in 

 front of a valley which sank through the ridge of the mountains, 

 southward towards the strait. I did not think I had seen it before, 

 and pulled out my field-glasses. While I was adjusting them, the 

 speck grew larger, and by the time I had it in the glasses, I saw a 

 reindeer ! Shortly afterwards another one mounted the knoll. I 

 had never seen wild reindeer before, still less shot one, and 



