CHAPTER XII. 



TROLDFJOED. 



WE camped a little way round the headland, as I did not wish 

 to drive farther before I had been up on to high ground. The dogs, 

 too, were so tired after their bear-hunt that they were good for 

 nothing, and although the distance we had driven was not six 

 miles, I thought it wiser on their account to make a halt. 



When the camp was in order and the dogs fed, Fosheim and 

 Eaanes took an azimuth, while I went up the talus with Schei : 

 he in the capacity of geologist ; I to scan the country. But it 

 was so steep and the snow so loose, that I soon had to stop. 

 This much I saw, however, that the fjord penetrated a long 

 way to the north, and, at any rate at first, was of quite a fair 

 width. 



It was my opinion that we ought to drive up this fjord ; 

 it could not be far now to the fjord Isachsen had visited the 

 previous spring, and if any pass existed from in here to the fjords 

 we saw in the spring of 1899, we were probably on the right 

 track. 



The bears seemed to have a high-road round the headland, 

 so numerous were their tracks. At about four in the morning 

 the dogs turned us out, and when Schei and the mate from 

 the other tent ran out, they saw a bear going full speed some 

 three or four hundred yards from the camp. We let it go ; and 

 they turned in again. 



We set forth at our usual hour. The snow became harder 

 and harder, and a mile or two up the fjord we began to make 

 rapid progress. But by degrees as we drove farther in our 

 hopes sank of finding a sound. The bear-tracks decreased very 



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