SPRING JOURNEYS, 1901. 167 



found out. He peered and stared, and turned and twisted till I 

 felt quite sorry for him, and felt as if I ought to offer him my 

 glasses, for his eyes seemed to be almost dropping out of his head. 

 When he could do no more he set off south-eastward, but struck 

 out so far from land that he fell on to our tracks, where he picked 

 up the scent and followed us for an hour or more, though always 

 at a respectful distance. 



We had been steering for a time on a high headland whence 

 we expected to find a fjord or sound trending to the north ; at 

 any rate, a big bay appeared to run northward. Our course 

 being set on the end of this cape, we came to strike out some 

 distance from land, and camped that evening about three miles 

 out on the ice. 



It was almost impossible in all this loose snow to properly 

 secure the dogs, and we could think of no better plan than to 

 thrust our ' ski ' and ' ski '-staffs well into the snow and tie up the 

 teams to them. I was not at all at ease about the dogs that 

 evening. If once they wind a bear there is no knowing what they 

 will do next, and what we had to secure them to that evening 

 would be useless if once they made up their minds to get loose. 

 But if we kept on the alert we should, I concluded, be able to stop 

 them before they had got away. 



Early in the morning, just after we had finished breakfast, the 

 dogs gave tongue. Schei plunged out of the tent, and I followed 

 at his heels, but we had hardly set foot outside before they 

 wrested themselves loose and set off after a bear. Their traces 

 had already become inextricably entangled during the course of 

 the night, and when they now set off, with the connecting lanyard 

 holding all the traces together, confusion became worse confounded. 

 Away across loose snow and every obstacle, as hard as they could 

 go, but always with a couple of yelping, sprawling duffers in tow, 

 who made the snow fly up like dust. As for the bear, they had 

 hold of it several times, but could not bring it to bay. I was 

 only thankful the fellow did not take it into its head to make 

 an end of them on the spot, for it could easily have done so 

 had it liked. And thus the whole medley made their way 

 towards land! 



