SCHEI'S NARRATIVE. 483 



running up the hillside that the animals saw them. They imme- 

 diately formed a triangle, and stood quietly waiting till we came 

 up, now and then, only, making a sortie after a dog. Hendriksen 

 had the first shot, and fired at the old cow, under the horns, as she 

 was standing with her head lowered. She, of course, remained 

 standing, but bled profusely, and Hendriksen asked, half aghast, 

 half angrily, where these animals were to be hit in order to bring 

 off one's shot the first time. As an old Arctic Ocean walrus- 

 catcher he thought he ought not to expend more than one shot on 

 each animal. At this moment the bull, which was right in front 

 of me, lowered its head for an attack on a more than usually 

 importunate dog, and I gave it a shot in the nape of the neck. It 

 sank together as if struck by lightning. Hendriksen shot the two 

 others in the same spot, and we thus had the whole family an old 

 cow, and two quite young animals. All were thin. Then came 

 pitching the tent, and the skinning. We kept the best of the meat 

 for ourselves, and the rest was eaten up by the teams during the 

 night. Next morning only a heap of gnawed bones and a few bits 

 of skin indicated the spot where thirteen beasts of prey had made 

 havoc. 



'The day afterwards we continued driving, in fine weather, 

 easily found the pass we wanted, and reached the ice-foot on the 

 north side of the island. A buck reindeer, which we passed at five 

 hundred yards' distance, saw us, and came running after us several 

 times to investigate the convoy. Finally it stood still and gazed 

 at us for a long time, then apparently gave up troubling itself any 

 more in the matter, and began to graze instead. 



' A few days later we left the islands. Three days' driving 

 brought us to " Hyperitodden " (Hyperite Point), and further to 

 " Bjornesund" (Bear Sound), in Heureka Sound, tracts which both 

 before and since have been visited by others that same year by 

 Isachsen, and both the following years by Captain Sverdrup. 



' After a few days' stay we started back to the ship, and at five 

 o'clock on Whit-Sunday morning those on board were aroused 

 from their slumbers by protracted howls our four-footed friends' 

 greeting to the home-comers. Our own dogs had an extra feed, and 

 were tied up : that was the thanks they got for work well done.' 



