SNOWSTORM AND MISFORTUNE. 07 



Olsen in a full suit of wolf-skin clothing. During these stormy 

 days we had had plenty of time to dry and see to our furs, and 

 we had made the most of it. 



It can have been no pleasure to be Olsen that day. If he sat 

 on the sledge, it hurt his arm every time the sledge jolted against 

 the steep, wind-hardened drifts ; if he walked, his arm pained him 

 at every step. He tried both ways, and chose the former- 1 - the 

 pain was about the same, but he would get back quicker by driving. 

 We reached the ship a little past noon. 



I had felt some anxiety about Baumann also, as he must have 

 come in for a certain amount of the bad weather on his way across 

 the neck. He had, however, reached the ship safe and sound the 

 same day. His early start had been a lucky thing for him, as he 

 had crossed the watershed and reached Gaasedalen, where all was 

 plain sailing, by the time the storm broke. He no longer regretted 

 the coffee which had kept him awake at night. 



As soon as we arrived on board I set Simmons to find some of 

 the doctor's books and see what we had better do for Olsen's arm. 

 We found some diagrams and various directions as to how a dis- 

 location should be reduced, and after some consideration chose the 

 way which seemed easiest and most simple. 



The operation would have been easy enough had we dared to 

 chloroform our patient, but we had no desire to attempt such a 

 thing. What were we to do ? Several days had elapsed, and the 

 arm was swollen and angry. Inexperienced as we were we should 

 probably torture poor Olsen most horribly before we got his arm 

 into place again. 



I therefore decided to make him thoroughly drunk the effects 

 of that we could better grapple with. Tor this purpose we first 

 tried naphtha, but that did not do; he disliked the taste of it 

 so much that I could not bring myself to force more on him. 

 Good we had other things that tasted considerably better. I 

 entered into partnership with the brandy fiend ; sent for a bottle 

 of the very best Cognac ; and began to give him dram after 

 dram. But it really was too much to expect him to drink him- 

 self half-seas-over on dry nips all alone, without any other 

 diversion, so I sat down and talked to him about everything I 



VOL. II. II 



