16 



NEW LAND. 



country, it appeared. More thoroughly disappointed than we 

 were a pursuer of game could hardly be. 



Early next morning we set forth up the valley, where Schei 

 did the work he wanted to do. After we returned to camp we 

 managed to shoot a few eiders ; but they were shy, as I said before, 

 and difficult to come within range of ; and even when they allowed 

 us to do this it was not easy to get them ashore. We had either 

 to wait till they drifted to the edge of the ice with the current, or 



else which we did several times wade out after them. We 

 were equipped with waterproof trousers, and went out till the 

 water came up to the calves of our legs, but there we drew the line. 

 I was particularly well situated in this respect, for I had some 

 Kerseymere trousers, which I tied firmly round my ankles, and 

 they were very fairly watertight. Another of their virtues was the 

 impossibility of wearing them out, and I came to regard them 

 with a sort of superstition, and felt very small in them one day 

 when I found that they had at last sprung a leak. 



The following day we moved our camp across the fjord to a 



