NEW LAND! 147 



Isachsen had thought of making his depot in North Cornwall ; 

 he had passed Graham Island and driven thirty-five miles due 

 west, but not seeing anything of land he had taken a line for 

 Cape South-West, and left a depot there. During the couple 

 of days they had spent at Cape South- West, Schei had made 

 an excursion along the shore northwards towards ' De To 

 Kratere.' 



On the way up they had seen a herd of polar oxen on Graham 

 Island. They had driven a little way up on land towards them, 

 but the animals were some distance off, and the wind being from 

 the wrong quarter, the dogs did not draw on to them. When 

 after this the animals moved still farther off and were lost to 

 sight, they came to the conclusion that with their heavy loads 

 pursuit would not be worth while. They hoped to get a 

 chance at the animals on their way back; it would be more 

 convenient to shoot them then, too, on account of taking back the 

 skeletons. 



On the way home they accordingly drove along the crack of 

 the island, putting down a depot on the north side of it ; but the 

 weather was so bad that they did not think it worth while to spend 

 time in attempting pursuit of the oxen. The result of this ex- 

 pedition was, that Isachsen and Hassel had for their approaching 

 journey, besides the little depot on Graham Island, another 

 thoroughly adequate one at Cape South-West, at a distance of 

 about 126 miles from the ship. 



After this I began to think that perhaps I ought to bring 

 myself to have a few of the animals shot up on the neck. 

 Isachsen's party had seen them at almost the same spot that we 

 had, and so, after some further thinking about it, I gave the mate 

 and Fosheim orders to go up next day and shoot some of the 

 animals. 



They set off with a team of dogs, found the herd at almost the 

 same place, shot four of them, and returned the next day with one 

 of the animals. The others were to be fetched the day after- 

 wards, but such a storm blew up that the trip had to be postponed 

 till the weather improved. 



Of the four animals shot three were cows in calf, and as far as 



