130 NEW LAND. 



The wind was as strong as it had been during the night, and 

 hardly were we well under way before we had a moderate gale 

 dead ahead. And how the snow whirled ! Every now and then 

 we gathered courage and opened an eye sufficiently to catch a 

 glimpse of land. The day before we had worn our wolf-skin coats, 

 but all three of us had found them too warm, so that to-day we 

 had on only wind-repellers outside the Icelanders, but we had not 

 driven many hundred yards before we were glad to take to our 

 furs again. In such cold and such wind as this, however, we 

 found it impossible to protect our faces, and before we knew what 

 was happening, we had white frost-bitten patches which had to be 

 hastily rubbed warm. 



We drove at a hap-hazard up the fjord that day, and were 

 rather taken aback when at one time we found ourselves on a 

 large stretch of sand. A little while afterwards we got into the 

 hollow of a river, and this we followed some way northward. Not- 

 withstanding that the wind had gone down considerably, we camped 

 rather early. I was anxious for a reconnaissance, for it seldom 

 answers to drive far without one. 



While the others were getting supper ready, I accordingly went 

 up to a crag on the south side of the valley. I stamped my way 

 up across loose stones and hills of grit, turning finally into a small 

 valley, which after much trouble led me up to a cliff where I had 

 a good view eastward over the low neck of land. 



Beyond the neck lay the sea, whence numerous fjords extended 

 in between the great mountain-ridges with their sharp crests, and 

 sides like steep black walls. But the distance was substantial ; 

 I put it down at forty miles or more. 



The land on the north side of the neck was so flat that it 

 was almost impossible to say where it ended and the sea began. 

 At one time I even thought that the great white even surface I 

 saw was a plain of sand sending its arms in between the mountains 

 away in the north ; but afterwards I came to the conclusion that 

 it was more probably a fjord, and guessed the distance between the 

 neck of land and the sea at some twenty miles. 



What I had seen from the cliff caused great satisfaction in 

 camp, and we set off to drive up the valley next day with much 



