A WOLF WINTER. 117 



This was a sad disappointment for Olsen and Fosheim, but 

 having bought their experience, they proceeded, nothing daunted, 

 to make use of it. They put an iron bolt to the door, and a spring 

 which pressed in the bolt when the door fell down. 



The next night the wolf was about again. The pieces of meat 

 round the trap were soon eaten up, and after that what was on the 

 floor of the trap, but the bait itself was carefully avoided. For 

 obvious reasons nothing was said of the wolfs second appearance ; 

 nobody was told except myself, and I shall not give them 

 away. 



The gin at Galgeodden was no more successful than Fosheim's 

 apparatus. We therefore changed it to an ice-trap, but the wolves 

 did not come any the more for that. 



On the night of Friday, December 7, Fosheim and I slept in 

 a three-man tent up by the forge to try the new sleeping-bags. 

 Nobody went to look at the traps in the morning, except Olsen, 

 who walked across the ice to his and Fosheim's. But this time 

 there was really an occupant. He ran back breathless to impart 

 the news. The trap was conveyed on board and inspected a wolf 

 was in it, sure enough. 



The excitement was great ; all the men aft set to work at once 

 to make a cage of planks, which they lined with tin to prevent 

 the wolf from gnawing a way out. We had hoped to finish this 

 in the course of the Saturday, but it was not done, and the wolf 

 had to remain in the trap till Monday. It had room enough to 

 move about in the two boxes, but it lay quite still, evidently too 

 frightened to stir. The food which we threw into the trap it took 

 no notice of at first. 



On Sunday, Fosheim, the mate, and a few of the others went up 

 to have a really good look at the prisoner. They opened the door 

 as wide as they dared, and peered in, but who shall describe their 

 astonishment when they saw that the wolf had turned into two ! 

 How this had happened it is difficult to say, but the fact remains 

 that there were two full-grown wolves in the trap. 



We gave them plenty of meat and fish to eat, but they did not 

 move all day. In the night, however, we heard them pacing round 

 in the trap, and beginning to gnaw the frozen meat. They were 



