20 XEW LAND. 



in each other's way, either here or anywhere else ; the one gave 

 place and the other took possession, according as room was required. 



As in our former harbour, so again here, we had our outlook, 

 which we called ' Kriugsjaa/ and visited it daily in our pursuit 

 of lanes out in the ice in Jones Sound. It was on a high hill 

 immediately above the vessel's moorings, and there, too, a little 

 distance from the edge, Baumacn took his meteorological obser- 

 vations, and, later in the summer, Isachsen also. On clear days 

 they were often so busy that they would not come down for 

 dinner, which was consequently sent up to them. 



Like the forge, our four-footed friends had also migrated from 

 the ice, and were now chained up near the river. There they lay 

 baskiug in the sunshine, panting and making such a noise that we 

 could actually hear them on board, more than a couple of hundred 

 yards away. Not all the dogs, however, were down by the river. 

 Three or four of the bitches, which were about to do their duty as 

 citizens, were placed near the observatory for shelter, and it was 

 not long before they each had a family of eight or ten puppies. 

 But the lying-in hospital was visited by others who were in the 

 less fortunate position of neither having nor expecting any 

 puppies ; and what did they there ? Why, they stole the puppies 

 whenever they got the chance ; especially from those which had 

 the largest litters. When they had got possession of one of the 

 pretty little pups, they would lie if they were allowed to 

 licking it and keeping it warm all day long. 



Among the proud mothers was one named ' Silden,' or more 

 correctly ' Silla.' It might be thought she would have been 

 huppy, considering the large number of her offspring, but she 

 was not happy enough, and was always on the alert to kidnap 

 a few more pups, which she nursed with the same motherly 

 tenderness that she did her own. By degrees, as the puppies 

 all grew bigger, and their mothers began to go small excursions, 

 she took possession of the whole pack of little ones, and it was 

 not till they were all crawling over her and round her, like ants 

 in an anthill, that she appeared to be thoroughly happy." We 

 crammed her with as much food as she could possibly eat, but 

 she became so deplorably thin, that she could hardly hold together. 



