NEW LAND! 143 



whole evening until we turned in. At such a low temperature as 

 this a considerable amount of rime will collect even in a double 

 tent, but as long as the ' Primus ' was alight it was so warm that 

 it was quite worth while to hang up our things to dry. 



Our new footgear proved to be first-rate ; the best any of us had 

 ever had. We all used birch-bark soles inside our 'finsko,' but 

 only a couple of us wore wolf-skin over-socks in the daytime ; the 

 rest used ordinary woollen over-socks, and found them quite warm 

 enough. On the other hand, the Turkish bath up on the neck 

 of land had not agreed with us very well. It had no especial 

 Ill-effects, it is true, but we were out of training, and the heavy 

 march had told on us ; whilst the violent perspiration it had 

 thrown us into had caused much moisture to collect in the bags, 

 and in our wolf-skin clothes, which we wore every day. 



Next morning we set forth homewards. We had hardly any 

 loads, and the ice was good, so that we could drive quickly the 

 whole day ; in the evening we encamped in a river- valley up on 

 the neck, about two miles from the fjord-ice. We could well have 

 driven a little farther, but we found here everything we could 

 desire : a first-rate camping ground, good cooking-ice, and a place 

 where we could easily fasten up the dogs. Farther up there was 

 little or no possibility of really securing them, and no cooking- 

 ice. 



While the others were putting the camp to rights, I took 

 my gun and walked a little way south-eastward to look at our 

 surroundings. 



The country was broken, with low undulating eminences, and 

 it was only with great difficulty that I was able to tramp through 

 the snow from one ridge to another. 



The ridges were bare, but as a rule could show no better con- 

 stituent than sand and grit, although the numerous fresh trail of 

 polar oxen told in plain words that this great plain was not dead. 

 Vegetation must, therefore, be sought down in the snow-covered 

 fissures. The snow in the hollows looked like hard drifted snow, 

 and seemed as if it would bear, but no sooner did I step on it than 

 it gave way, and I sank in to my knees. 



I soon grew tired of ploughing through all this loose snow, and 



