CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR A BOLD FOX. 121 



It was a comfort to know the ' Fram's ' stout oak timbers were 

 between us and the winter outside, for it was Christmas weather 

 that swept everything before it. The north wind blew at the 

 rate of 40 to 46 feet per second, nay, even up to 59 feet, and that 

 abeam, while the mercury froze and left it to other, less chilly, 

 substances to show from below 40 down to 57 Fahr. ( 40 

 to -50 Cent.). 



When the weather was reasonable enough to allow of our 

 putting our heads outside the door, we made several small excursions 

 near the ship. The mate and I thus went a little way up Gaase- 

 dalen, to see if we could find any big game, but up on the wastes 

 where there was herbage was also an even sheet of snow quite 

 thin, it is true, but packed as hard as ice by the wind. No matter 

 how many oxen had gone there, we could hardly have seen their 

 tracks. But for that matter, it was so dark we should not have 

 discovered the animals themselves had they been any distance 

 away. We took this opportunity of cleaning our traps, for they 

 were full of drifted snow. A fox had paid a Christmas visit to 

 one of them. It had burrowed its way in through the drift till it 

 reached the bait, and having eaten it had quietly gone out again, 

 as the snow prevented the door from dropping. The Arctic 

 fox was not far behind his cousin, the red fox, in courtesy, it 

 appeared. 



Fosheim and Olsen also cleared their traps, but did not find 

 the sign of a wolf. They thought the time had come to set their 

 fox-traps, which they accordingly did, and it was not long before 

 ' Mikkel ' went into one and was caught. They took the fox on 

 board, and turned it into the wolves' cage. 



I thought to myself when I heard this that there couldn't 

 be much left of the fox by this time, and went up on deck to 

 attend the funeral. Not a little surprised was I when I saw 

 it walking about the cage with a superb air of possession. It 

 entirely overlooked the wolves, appeared quite oblivious of their 

 existence, and if, as happened now and again, they turned their 

 heads towards it with an air of friendly warning, it snarled at 

 them so alarmingly that they promptly hid their diminished heads. 

 If it wished to be in any particular spot already occupied by a 



