486 NEW LAND. 



the afternoon of the second day made short work of Baumann's 

 tent. The wind cracked the ridge-pole, and they had to spend a 

 couple of hours splicing it and re-pitching the tent ; no sooner had 

 they done it all than the wind went down ! 



Next morning they began to cook at five o'clock, but found so 

 much to do repairing all the damage, and digging out the sledges, 

 that they did not get off before nine. They had before them a 

 bit of nasty driving. The ice-foot had been carried away for a 

 couple of hundred yards, obliging them to drive along the talus at 

 some little height. Farther on their progress was still very slow 

 on account of the drift and the number of stones on the ice-foot. 



At Trangsund they cached some dog-food, consisting of 

 blubber and fish ; and in a biting wind from the north set 

 diagonally across the sound, towards North Kent. This was on 

 April 12. Although Baumann and the mate took it in turns to 

 drive first, they were both badly frozen, Baumann chiefly on the 

 wrists, and the mate chiefly on the upper lip, with the sad result 

 that he lost his moustache. Happily neither of them had any 

 lasting ill-effects from it. They pitched their tent close inshore, 

 and braced it with a number of extra storm-guys. It was the 

 returning party's last day with Schei and Peder, and the two 

 latter stood drinks in honour of it. 



Next day the two parties said good-bye to each other. The 

 weather was fairly fine, but the returning party had not gone far 

 from laud on their way back, when the wind sprang up as 

 violently as the day before. But it was now at their backs ; the 

 empty sledges were light; and they covered the whole of the 

 previous day's march in an hour. 



This day again they were put to a good deal of trouble by the 

 stones, which had lately rolled down from the talus ; the German 

 silver on the sledges creaked and groaned till it could be heard 

 quite a way off, but it was not possible to take much heed of it. 



By three in the afternoon they were through the sound, and 

 went on at once to Hvalrosfjord, where they arrived half an hour 

 later, but as they could not find a sheltered camping-place there, 

 they drove on to the cape between Gaasefjord and Hvalrosfjord. 

 Not much lee was to be found there either, but still it was possible 

 to pitch a tent. 



