HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS. 85 



as a rule was clear, but the temperature sank rather fast. The 

 colder it became, the more the wind blew down the fjord. With 

 Schei's help I set to work to cut away all the running gear, and 

 this we coiled, marked, and put down in the cable tier. It was 

 a cold job working up aloft in such a cutting wind, but there was 

 no help for it ; it was a thing which had to be done. 



It had been arranged that when the meat convoy returned 

 Schei and Isachsen should take their teams down the fjord, encamp 

 under one of the headlands there, and shoot bears. We had no 

 fresh food whatever for the dogs, for since we left Havnefjord we 

 had shot only two or three seals and no walruses. It would be a 

 great thing to have fresh meat again this year as heretofore, and, 

 weather permitting, there was still time for us to capture a little 

 dog-food. With luck we might even get a few walruses out in 

 the fjord. 



After we had finished unrigging the vessel, Schei spent most of 

 his time up on the talus, and considerable quantities of minerals 

 came on board that autumn. He also made his preparations for 

 the trip down the fjord, in order to lie ready when Isachsen came 

 back. 



On Saturday, October 13, the party arrived from the north, all 

 with loads as big as they could possibly manage to drive across 

 the neck. The meat they had been unable to bring with them 

 they had piled in a big heap, a little way up the river- valley north 

 of the neck. This spot we named ' Nordstrand/ and the river 

 consequently became ' Nordstrandselven.' Baumann and Raanes 

 had taken up their posts as guards of the depot. They had made 

 their tent very warm and comfortable by covering the roof and 

 walls with the ox-skins, and few houses at home in Norway, I 

 should fancy, are warmer than was theirs at ISTordstrand. 



During his solitary time there, Peder had had visits from a 

 bear, and five wolves. The former he saw when he was out on a 

 tarn getting cooking-ice, but before he had fetched his gun the 

 animal was far away on the drift-ice. The wolves, on the other 

 hand, had been regular nocturnal visitors, but they were so wary 

 that it was impossible to get within gunshot. He had stolen out 

 of the tent each time he heard them, but each time also saw 



