NEW LAND! 139 



It was my hope that this fjord penetrated up to the latitudes 

 where Isachsen and Braskerud had seen the big fjords in 1899. 

 Even if it were not in connection with them the distance thither 

 overland must in such case be inconsiderable, and I thought it 

 certain that we should be able to get across that way, whether or 

 not there was connection. 



The mountains on both sides of the fjord gave the impression 

 of being very high, but east of them were lowlands extending as 

 far north as the eye could see. The land to the west presented a 

 wild, riven, mountain landscape, furrowed by deep black cliffs 

 and narrow fjords, and surrounded by lofty, jagged crests, from 

 which pinnacles and peaks rose boldly to a still greater height. 



It was not long before we found the trail of oxen. The 

 animals had descended the north side of the hill and gone on to 

 the plain in a north-easterly direction. When we reached this 

 again we heard the sound of dogs giving tongue, and knew that 

 they must be on to game. We supposed that a team must have 

 winded the animals, had broken loose, and were hunting on their 

 own account, and we therefore followed the sounds for a time. 

 But it was not long before we heard a shot, and although as far as 

 the dogs were concerned one might have thought anything, we 

 now saw the situation, and slipped back to camp, as we would not 

 spoil sport for Baumann and Peder. Besides all the hare-tracks, 

 we saw the footprints of a great many ptarmigan, and the trail of 

 wolves almost wherever we went ; and when we came down to the 

 sea-ice saw bear-tracks in rows along the crack. The country in 

 which we now were appeared to be anything but dead. 



Arrived in camp again, we set to work to brush off the lumps 

 of ice which were still clinging to the inner tent, which was now 

 as dry as possible. We also gave the bags a brushing before we 

 turned them, and put them in their places in the tent, in a some- 

 what dry condition. We then made ourselves some coffee, and as 

 we were sitting comfortably over it and some sandwiches we heard 

 the others drive up. On looking out we saw they had on the 

 sledge a large, unskinned polar ox, in its prime. 



So now we exchanged places ; the others went into the tent 

 and we set to work on the skinning. We all helped to dismember 



