134 NEW LAND. 



to get a view east. I had not gone far before I saw a broad 

 waterway opening out to the east and a large fjord running between 

 the mountains far away in the north-east. 



The country hereabouts seemed to be prolific in small game. 

 There were numerous ptarmigan-tracks, and I also saw a large 

 covey of them ; they would hardly take the trouble to move out 

 of my way. But if there was game in abundance, there were 

 also signs of their enemies. I saw numbers of wolf-tracks, though, 

 for that matter, we had seen them on the fjord as well. Some 

 bear-tracks also told their own tale. 



The violent perspiration which our exertions in the loose 

 snow had thrown us into had resulted in the formation of much 

 ice on our clothing and possessions generally. Our wolf-skin 

 clothes were anything but dry, our bags the same ; in fact, the 

 latter were in a terrible state inside. Peder's was frozen so hard 

 together that he could not get in farther than to his armpits, 

 and I should think he cannot have had a particularly warm 

 night of it. 



The snow in the sound next day was very good, and we soon 

 entered the main fjord, the direction of which on the whole was 

 about south-west and north-east. North-west of the fjord the land 

 rose in high jagged pinnacles, while on the other side it was 

 bounded by low ridges. About due east of us rose a huge moun- 

 tain which fell away precipitously into the fjord. It had every 

 appearance of being situated on an island, but it was possible 

 that we might have reason to change our opinion when at closer 

 quarters. The distance to the more northern J>oint we thought 

 must be about twelve miles. 



We took a line for this point, as I hoped from it to get a good 

 enough view north to enable me to decide whether or not there 

 was a sound running farther inwards in a northerly direction. 

 Even now we saw fjords apparently stretching far in. 



I did not wish to drive farther than was absolutely necessary, 

 as all the dogs were beginning to be footsore, and if we allowed 

 this affection to get the upper hand we might have to wait for 

 weeks before they recovered. Dogs suffer very much from their 

 feet in weather as cold and going as hard as both of these now 



