106 NEW LAND. 



They required altogether about a dozen kennels, so that we had 

 our work cut out for us. We set about them with all speed, and 

 soon had them ready. 



The dogs, on the whole, had not been very happy this autumn. 

 They had felt the continual stormy weather very much, and many 

 of them were reduced almost to skin and bone ; so from this time 

 onward we began to feed them better than we had done before. 

 We went through their provisions, and found that we had so much 

 biscuit left that we could well afford to increase the biscuit ration 

 from three and a half to five biscuits a day for each dog. As we 

 had not a scrap of fresh meat left for them, we made a hole in 

 our store of fat, and gave them alternately biscuit and fat, and 

 fish. It was not long before we had the pleasure of again seeing 

 them thriving and increasing in weight. 



As soon as the kennels were ready our old winter regulations 

 with respect to the dogs entered into force out on the ice every 

 forenoon from nine to between twelve and one, and the rest of the 

 twenty-four hours indoors. They lived with much greater harmony 

 this winter than heretofore, and hostilities were a rarity. An 

 occasional disturbance among them, when such took place, was 

 generally some slight disagreement within a team ; the old violent 

 feuds between the teams seemed to have died out. Probably they 

 thought that having fought so long and so thoroughly they could 

 make a pretty fair guess as to which of them was likely to come 

 off best, and consequently the interest of novelty was wanting. 

 But it was not impossible that they might begin again as soon as 

 the days grew lighter. 



Again this winter there was a great deal of work of various 

 kinds to be done before the spring came round once more more 

 than enough, indeed, for both cabins were so full of workmen and 

 their tools that it was hardly possible to move in them. 



Olsen took in hand the odometers, the woodwork of which 

 had to be renewed, though the mechanism and the wheels them- 

 selves were in fair order. We also required a third odometer, 

 and this had to be made entirely new. Among many other 

 larger and smaller instruments which Olsen had orders for I may 

 mention two alidades. The theodolites had to be polished, and 



