ISACHSEX RELATES. 5 



They were polar oxen. I was not long in getting out my carbine 

 and starting after them, but the animals moved away, and I there- 

 fore shouted to Hassel to set the dogs on them. The animals 

 they were a bull and a cow with its calf had meanwhile formed 

 up on a large knoll which it was very difficult to reach, as there 

 was some hard steep snow below it. The dogs and I arrived there 

 at the same moment. I crawled on my hands and knees, in the 

 track of the animals, to the top of the snow slope, where they 

 stood defiantly, with lowered heads, snorting and pawing up the 

 ground with their fore-legs. They looked very formidable, but 

 I had no time for reflection, and fired at the cow from where I 

 stood. The bull immediately charged me, but two shots one at 

 four or five paces brought it rolling to my feet. 



' The calf, which I had not hitherto noticed, as it had hidden 

 itself in the long hair of the cow, had been attacked by the dogs, 

 and I had a skirmish with them before I could prevent them 

 from worrying it to death. It is with a curious sensation that one 

 stands face to face with these animals ; their appearance and 

 environment carry one's thoughts back to a time long past. 



' We rolled them down the snow slope and opened them, after 

 first milking the cow. The dogs had one animal all to themselves ; 

 we harnessed all twelve to the other and drove it, on the skin, 

 down the snow-slopes to the sledges on the ice. We now had 

 what we had so often longed for black puddings to our hearts' 

 content. " There's many a one goes begging at home who hasn't 

 such food as this," said Hassel, as usual when he wished to ex- 

 press his appreciation of the fare. Furthermore, we had a nip in 

 the shape of a tablespoonful of brandy, and did not get into our 

 bag before the small hours of the morning. 



' We saw a fjord next day extending in an easterly direction, 

 and as it was important to discover for certain whether this was 

 the same fjord that Braskerud and I had seen from the glacier in 

 1899, we decided to drive up it, and then follow its east side south- 

 wards. The country north became lower and lower as we went on, 

 and appeared to be continuous on both sides. Through the tele- 

 scope we could follow a pressure-ridge on the outer side of the fjord, 

 which we thought probably indicated the trend of the coast-line. 



