CHAPTER II. 



SUMMER JOURNEYS AND FERTILITY. 



BAUMANN and Schei came back on June 20. They had left the 

 ' Fram ' in company with Simmons and Stolz on June 5, at seven 

 in the evening. The going was now considerably better at night 

 than during the daytime, and it was often found preferable to 

 drive at night. 



On June 7 Simmons and Stolz had taken a line for Baadsfjord, 

 while the two others continued west and reached Bjorneborg late 

 that afternoon, where they found Fosheim in good health and 

 spirits. 



The sloping roof was finished, the tent was now watertight and 

 comfortable, and the tin boxes had gone into the reserve. The 

 game captured had at first been little, as the weather was so 1 >ad ; 

 but on the same day that Baumann and Schei arrived Fosheim had 

 shot a bearded seal and two bears, which had come to visit him in 

 company, so he had nothing to complain of that day. He was in 

 the midst of skinning the bears when the party arrived. 



He was unfortunate enough during this process to cut one of 

 his fingers. As a wound it was nothing to speak of, and at first he 

 took no notice of it, little thinking what a serious affair it was going 

 to turn out. The finger developed wjiat among whale-catchers is 

 known as an 'Arctic Ocean fester.' This, as far as I know, is a 

 local blood-poisoning, which is generally caused by handling 

 blubber when one has a cut or scratch on the hand, so small 

 perhaps that one has not even noticed it. In my experience 

 blubber is one of the most dangerous things that can be touched 

 in such circumstances, and many a stout whale-catcher has had to 

 lay down his life for a trifle of the kind. The only way of making 



